Marine Conservation Organizations
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MarineBio is deeply committed to marine conservation and founded on the concept that, by sharing the wonders of the ocean and marine life, people will be inspired to protect it. We hope you will consider becoming a member to help us bring the ocean and the conservation message to as many people as possible.
The oceans are downstream of everything. And they don't have an endless capacity to absorb waste. In fact, every year people dispose of 161 million gallons of used motor oil improperly—an amount greater than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Much of this oil ends up in waterways and the oceans, where it takes a tremendous toll on aquatic life. By being careful about oil and other substances, you can help keep ocean waters clean. - Ocean Conservancy
Global Warming (Climate Change)
Climate Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography - Research themes include predicting the natural variability of climate and understanding the consequences of man-made increases in the greenhouse effect. Climate change caused by human actions is the paradigm that illustrates why traditional disciplinary barriers in the earth sciences are rapidly weakening. In the climate system, the atmosphere, the seas, the land surface, and the world of living things are tightly coupled. To understand these interactions, a variety of expertise must be brought to bear through a team approach to research.
Climate Science Watch is a nonprofit public interest education and advocacy project dedicated to holding public officials accountable for the integrity and effectiveness with which they use climate science and related research in government policymaking, toward the goal of enabling society to respond effectively to the challenges posed by global warming and climate change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): The IPCC has been established by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.
Ocean and Climate Change Institute : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - "We are an Institute without walls or permanent scientific staff. We are using our energies and resources to advance the knowledge of “How the Ocean works in the Earth's Changing Climate System” by acting across WHOI departmental structures, blending education, research, access to the sea, and outreach to achieve our goals."
StopGlobalWarming.org - a non-partisan effort to bring citizens together to declare that global warming is here now and that it is time to demand solutions. Global warming is the most urgent issue of our time, and while the problem is of worldwide significance, we recognize that the United States is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, responsible for 40% of the industrialized world's emissions, and doing the least about it. The necessary first step must be to encourage Americans to take action. This online grassroots movement is about change -- as individuals, as a country, and as a global community. We are all contributors to global warming and must all be part of the solution. With the support of leading scientists, political, religious, cultural and business leaders, the Virtual March is creating one, loud collective voice that will be heard around the world. By spreading the word, we are building a movement to stop global warming.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - an international treaty to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. Recently, a number of nations have approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures. The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the climate change process.
Sustainable Fishing (Overfishing)
Blue Ocean Institute: a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring ocean conservation through science, art, and literature. The group is particularly interested in providing information that will help people make choices that help restore living abundance in the oceans such as a seafood consumer education initiative "From Sea to Table".
Marine Fish Conservation Network: a coalition of more than 155 national and regional environmental organizations, commercial and recreational fishing groups, aquariums, and marine science groups dedicated to conserving marine fish and to promoting their long-term sustainability.
National Coalition for Marine Conservation: a public advocacy group dedicated to conserving the world's ocean fish, habitat and environment. Their mission is to build public awareness of the threats to marine fisheries, provide solutions, and convince state, national and international fishery managers to take appropriate action to reverse the overfishing effects on marine fish.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: an organization focusing on halting illegal fishing activities by providing support and assistance in the upholding and, where possible, enforcing of international treaties, laws and conventions through investigation and documentation of violations.
Biodiversity
The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is an international professional organization dedicated to promoting the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity. The Society's membership comprises a wide range of people interested in the conservation and study of biological diversity: resource managers, educators, government and private conservation workers, and students make up the more than 10,000 members world-wide.
The Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (CMBC) works to assess the state of marine ecosystems now and in the past and develop predictive models for the future; train new marine biodiversity and conservation scientists; develop novel interdisciplinary approaches linking the biological, physical, social and informatic sciences; increase public understanding of scientific issues and provide sound scientific analyses to policy makers; design technically sophisticated, regionally appropriate strategies to prevent and reverse biodiversity collapse.
Earthwatch Institute: an international non-profit that supports scientific field research by offering volunteers the opportunity to join research teams around the world. This unique model is creating a systematic change in how the public views science and its role in environmental sustainability.
Fauna and Flora International (FFI): Fauna & Flora International aims to change the policy and behavior that contribute to biodiversity loss by engaging a wide range of governments and non-governmental organizations, and by raising the profile of biodiversity within the wider global development debate.
IUCN Species Survival Commission: A science-based network of 7,000+ volunteer experts from almost every country of the world working together to achieve the vision of "A world that values and conserves present levels of biodiversity."
TRAFFIC: A wildlife trade monitoring network that works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and IUCN - The World Conservation Union.
Wetlands International: A global nonprofit dedicated to the conservation and wise use of wetlands to benefit biodiversity and human well-being.
World Resources Institute: An environmental think tank working to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. WRI provides objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development for.
Threatened & Endangered Species
Center for Biological Diversity - Nature's Legal Eagles. Protecting biodiversity through science, policy, education, and environmental law. Combining conservation biology with litigation, policy advocacy, and an innovative strategic vision, the Center for Biological Diversity is working to secure a future for animals and plants hovering on the brink of extinction, for the wilderness they need to survive, and by extension for the spiritual welfare of generations to come.
Habitat Conservation
The IUCN Global Marine Programme provides vital linkages for the Union and its members to all the IUCN activities that deal with marine issues, including projects and initiatives of the Regional offices and the 6 IUCN Commissions. Its co-ordination role is above and beyond the policy development and thematic guidance that it undertakes to provide to assist governments, communities and NGOs alike.
Oceana is a non-profit international advocacy organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the world's oceans through policy advocacy, science, law and public education.
National Coalition for Marine Conservation is a public advocacy group dedicated to conserving the world's ocean fish, habitat and environment. Their mission is to build public awareness of the threats to marine fisheries, provide solutions, and convince state, national and international fishery managers to take appropriate action to reverse the overfishing effects on marine fish.
Conservation International: CI has set a goal for 2005-2010 to establish protective management regimes in five key seascapes covering ocean ecosystems with the most species at risk, and initiate 20 new marine protected areas for marine wildlife and critical habitats.
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition is calling on the United Nations General Assembly to secure a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling and protect these fragile and unique pockets of life in the deep seas before they are destroyed forever.
Nature Conservancy: Nature Conservancy's Global Marine Initiative links land and sea conservation in an effort to protect the rich array of plant and animal life and safeguard the tremendous benefits the oceans provide. The Conservancy has over 100 marine projects in 21 countries and 22 U.S. states.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization whos mission is to end the destruction of habitat and the slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas.
World Wildlife Fund: WWF's Endangered Seas Program works in more than 40 countries to campaign, lobby, develop and advocate solutions, commission and publish impartial data, advise, and champion the conservation of the marine environment and sustainable livelihoods.
Alien Species
The Marine Invasions Research Lab is a national and international center for research on biological invasions in coastal marine ecosystems.
The National Invasive Species Information Center (NISIC) was established in 2005 to serve as a reference gateway to information, organizations, and services about invasive species.
IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group: a global group of 146 scientific and policy experts on invasive species from 41 countries. ISSG provides advice on threats from invasives and control or eradication methods to IUCN members, conservation practitioners, and policy-makers. The group's activities focus primarily on invasive species that cause biodiversity loss, with particular attention to those that threaten oceanic islands.
The North European and Baltic Network on Invasive Alien Species (NOBANIS): a network of common databases on alien and invasive species of the region. By establishing a common portal access to IAS-related data, information and knowledge in the region is facilitated.
Ocean Dumping Grounds
International Maritime Organization (IMO) - IMO's Intervention Convention affirms the right of a coastal State to take measures on the high seas to prevent, mitigate or eliminate danger to its coastline from a maritime casualty. The International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC), 1990 provides a global framework for international co-operation in combating major incidents or threats of marine pollution. A protocol to this convention (HNS Protocol) covers marine pollution by hazardous and noxious substances.
Global Marine Litter Information Gateway: a co-operative effort of the UNEP GPA Coordination Office, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the UN International Maritime Organization. The objective is to provide a clearing-house, a gateway, for supply and exchange of information on the global, regional and local problem of marine litter.
Bluewater Network: promotes policy changes in government and industry to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and eradicate other root causes of air and water pollution, global warming, and habitat destruction. Also leads campaigns to protect National Parks from jetskis, snowmobiles and other recreational vehicles, and to prevent environmental damage from pollution caused by ferries, cruise ships, and other large vessels.
Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable Tourism Home Page - UNEP Tourism Programme: Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.
Planeta.com is a pioneering website (debuting in 1994) that provides resources for travelers and locals alike with a common vision of eco-friendly, people-friendly, place-friendly travel.
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. - Henry Beston, 1928
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Environmental Issue News :: ScienceDailyLightning signature could help reveal the solar system's origins
Every second, lightning flashes some 50 times on Earth. Together these discharges coalesce and get stronger, creating electromagnetic waves circling around Earth, to create a beating pulse between the ground and the lower ionosphere, about 60 miles up in the atmosphere. This electromagnetic signature, known as Schumann Resonance, had only been observed from Earth's surface until, in 2011, scientists discovered they could also detect it using NASA's Vector Electric Field Instrument (VEFI) aboard the U.S. Air Force's Communications/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS) satellite. In a new paper, researchers describe how this new technique could be used to study other planets in the solar system as well, and even shed light on how the solar system formed.
Scientists core into California's Clear Lake to explore past climate change
One of the oldest lakes in the world, Clear Lake in northern California has deep sediments that contain a record of the climate and local plants and animals going back perhaps 500,000 years. Scientists are drilling cores from the sediments to explore 130,000 years of this history and fine-tune models for predicting the fate of today's flora and fauna in the face of global warming and pressure from a growing human population.
Ecosystem effects of biodiversity loss rival climate change and pollution
Loss of biodiversity appears to affect ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to results of a new study.
Decades of data show spring advancing faster than experiments suggest
Plants are leafing out and flowering sooner each year than predicted by results from controlled environmental warming experiments, according to data from a major new archive of historical observations.
Experiments underestimate plant responses to climate change
Experiments may dramatically underestimate how plants will respond to climate change in the future. That's the conclusion of an analysis of 50 plant studies on four continents.
Ecosystem effects of biodiversity loss could rival impacts of climate change, pollution
Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study. There has been growing concern that the very high rates of modern extinctions -- due to habitat loss, overharvesting and other human-caused environmental changes -- could reduce nature's ability to provide goods and services like food, clean water and a stable climate.
First 'microsubmarines' designed to help clean up oil spills
Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of the first self-propelled "microsubmarines" designed to pick up droplets of oil from contaminated waters and transport them to collection facilities. The report concludes that these tiny machines could play an important role in cleaning up oil spills, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico.
Stream temperatures don't parallel warming climate trend
A new analysis of streams in the western United States with long-term monitoring programs has found that despite a general increase in air temperatures over the past several decades, streams are not necessarily warming at the same rate.
Environment key to preventing childhood disabilities
The United States government would get a better bang for its health-care buck in managing the country's most prevalent childhood disabilities if it invested more in eliminating socioenvironmental risk factors than in developing medicines. That's the key conclusion of a new article.
Global warming: New research blames economic growth
It's a message no one wants to hear: to slow down global warming, we'll either have to put the brakes on economic growth or transform the way the world's economies work. That's the implication of an innovative study examining the evolution of atmospheric CO2, the most likely cause of climate change.
Night-warming effect found over large wind farms in Texas
Large wind farms in certain areas in the United States appear to affect local land surface temperatures, according to a new article.
Global warming refuge discovered near at-risk Pacific island nation of Kiribati
Scientists predict ocean temperatures will rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems. But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a way that mitigates warming near a handful of islands right on the equator.
Pacific islands on equator may become refuge for corals in a warming climate due to changes in ocean currents
Scientists have predicted that ocean temperatures will rise in the equatorial Pacific by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems. But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a surprising way and mitigate the warming near a handful of islands right on the equator. As a result these Pacific islands may become isolated refuges for corals and fish.
Polluting China for the sake of economic growth
China's economic growth will continue to be energy-intensive and highly polluting for the foreseeable future with emissions and efficiency far below capital growth on the agenda, according to a new study.
'Warming hole' delayed climate change over eastern United States
Climate scientists have discovered that particulate pollution in the late 20th century created a "warming hole" over the eastern United States -- that is, a cold patch where the effects of global warming were temporarily obscured. The findings have implications for industrial nations (like China) that have not yet tightened air quality regulations.
Oil palm surging source of greenhouse gas emissions
Continued expansion of industrial-scale oil palm plantations on the island of Borneo will become a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 unless strong forest and peatland protections are enacted and enforced, according to a new study.
Heart study suggests city center pollution doubles risk of calcium build-up in arteries
City center residents who took part in a study were almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery calcification (CAC), which can lead to heart disease, than people who lived in less polluted urban and rural areas, according to new research.
Can organic food feed the world? New study sheds light on debate over organic vs. conventional agriculture
Can organic agriculture feed the world? Although organic techniques may not be able to do the job alone, they do have an important role to play in feeding a growing global population while minimizing environmental damage, according to researchers. A new study concludes that crop yields from organic farming are generally lower than from conventional agriculture. That is particularly true for cereals, which are staples of the human diet -- yet the yield gap is much less significant for certain crops, and under certain growing conditions, according to the researchers.
Do urban 'heat islands' hint at trees of future?
A new study shows that common native red oak seedlings grow as much as eight times faster in New York's Central Park than in more rural, cooler settings in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. Red oaks and their close relatives dominate areas ranging from northern Virginia to southern New England, so the study may have implications for changing climate and forest composition over a wide region.
Study finds surprising Arctic methane emission source
The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth's climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming. Now a multi-institutional study has uncovered a surprising and potentially important new source of Arctic methane: the ocean itself.
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