Meat of the Future?

Overfishing has reduced populations of large, predatory fish, allowing jellyfish to bloom. In some formerly biologically diverse areas of ocean, jellyfish biomass now exceeds that of fish. This shift is likely to continue: Climate change and pollution are changing the ocean chemistry, creating conditions favorable to jellyfish.

What’s more, jellyfish eat fish eggs, so once they become dominant in a marine ecosystem, they tend to be there on a permanent basis. “Jellyfish will be the seafood of the future not because that’s what we want to eat, but because that’s the only option,” says Jennifer Jacquet, a doctoral student at the University of BC’s Fisheries Center.

The Japanese have learned to make the flavorless, nutritionally sparse creatures more palatable; consumers can find jellyfish ice cream, jellyfish biscuits, rum-soaked jellyfish, and even wasabi-flavored jellyfish sold in vending machines.

What the hell? The aid agency Oxfam, pictured here, as totally fucking lost their minds. Kinda funny though.

Both are getting spanked by the changing climate. Two stories caught my eye yesterday. As they were climate-related, neither were particularly uplifting.

First off, a new report from Oxfam offers a view of the world with a global average temperature rise to 2°C, as well as what’s already happening around the globe. Suffering the Science: Climate change, people and poverty (PDF) goes into greater detail, but in short the report says that hunger, disaster and disease will be the “new normal”. It also explains that at a 5°C rise  billions could die, the poor will bear the grunt of climate change, worker productivity will drop, and that 375 million people will be hit by climate-related disasters in the next decade alone.

Next, the title says it all— Reefs could perish by end of century, experts warn. Not only are the world’s oceans already beyond the breaking point for coral reefs (367ppm is the breaking point—we are at 387ppm), but the loss of coral reef ecosystems will no doubt lead to the destruction of a vast amount of life in the oceans, thereby affecting human lives.

When will we learn?

The State of the Climate—and of Climate Science

In conjunction with the National Science Foundation and the San Francisco Exploratorium, DISCOVER brought together four experts to discuss the reality and meaning of climate change. In a highly nuanced exchange of ideas, these researchers weighed the various scenarios and laid out a road map for navigating the warmer world to come.

Very interesting read on how climate change is happening and how it’s human-related and -driven. Highly recommended reading.