by Terrence Aym

Created on: August 27, 2011

Mankind may be facing a devastating mass extinction in the near future warn a group of science experts. Five mass extinctions that occurred during the past half billion years followed biological and chemical disruptions to the oceans—the same kind of disruptions the oceans are experiencing now.

The 27 world's leading ocean scientists—led by Oxford professor Alex Rogers who heads the International Program on the State of the Ocean (IPSO)—are both frightened and dismayed by the ominous evidence their study revealed.

"The results are shocking," Alex Rogers stressed. "We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime."

And those consequences are not only dire, they could spell the doom of human kind.

Ocean ecosystems collapsing

The terrible triad of disaster driving the oceans into extinction are dwindling oxygen content (known as hypoxia), acidification of the seas on a global scale, and a general warming according to the IPSO report.

Although many ecologists believe the spreading hypoxia and acidification are direct results of global pollution, the cause of rising sea temperatures is debatable. Some believe it is attributable to man-made global warming, others argue that it is a combination of cyclical climate change driven by the sun's interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere and an upsurge in underwater volcanic activity.

Whatever the cause, the ocean ecosystems are collapsing and reversing it may prove an impossible task beyond the capability of current technology.

As fish stocks shrink, coral reefs die, and oceanic dead zones mushroom, the consortium of scientists led by Rogers foresees terrible consequences for all life on the planet.

Rogers observed that "As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean the implications became far worse than we had individually realized. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime and, worse, our children's and generations beyond that."

In fact, the death of the oceans will mean the death of the world as we know it and that ultimate collapse will not occur at some misty date in the future, but within the life times of many now alive, their children and grandchildren.

The genie in the bottle

A chain reaction has already been set into motion; its natural end is mass extinction of whole species. Driving the spiral into oblivion are both human and non-human events. Solar, volcanic and climate cycles cannot be countered. Whether

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