EARTHWEEK: DIARY OF A CHANGING WORLD
For the week ending June 30
Gelatinous invasion
Scientists are baffled by the mounting invasion of jellylike organisms that are clogging fishing gear from California to British Columbia this year. The glowing, tubular pyrosome clusters are typically found in the tropics far from shore, but they have spread northward along the Pacific Coast in recent years. There are now reports of them as far north as Sitka, Alaska. Some West Coast fishermen say there are now so many of the “sea pickles” in the water that it is impossible to catch anything else.
Ozone killer
The slow healing of Earth’s ozone hole is being held back by the use of an unregulated chemical that continues to damage the ultraviolet protection layer 30 years after most ozone-destroying compounds were banned. Atmospheric levels of dichloromethane, a short-lived substance used in paint strippers, are on the rise.
African ark
Thousands of wild animals are being moved across parts of Africa in an attempt to restore their populations in Mozambique, where a bloody 15-year civil war nearly wiped them out. Neighboring Zimbabwe is donating and transporting 50 elephants, 100 giraffes, 200 zebras and 200 water buffalo to Mozambique’s Zinave National Park in one of Africa’s largest wildlife transfers. In total, about 7,500 wild animals from Zimbabwe, South Africa and elsewhere in Mozambique will be relocated during the next three years to help Zinave officials restore the park’s diversity.
Earthquakes
Earth movements were felt in Japan, Mozambique, the Indonesian part of Timor Island, and in Afghanistan and neighboring parts of Pakistan.
Ever-rising CO2
The rate at which carbon dioxide is accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere is rising slightly less this year than the record increases measured in 2015 and 2016. This high rate is concerning to scientists because the amount of the greenhouse gas that humans are pumping into the air seems to have recently leveled off. Scientists are not certain if El Niño or any other factors can explain the high rate of increase in atmospheric CO2.
Quickening rises
Accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet has caused the pace of global sea level rise to surge since 1990, according to scientists from the United States, China and Australia. They found that the melt now contributes to more than a quarter of the world’s rising tides, compared with only 5 percent in 1993.