Octopuses will go blind thanks to climate change

Octopuses survived the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, but look set to go blind thanks to coal fired power and your car.

Octopuses may go blind from climate change, study warns

Octopus, Photo.

Plastic pollution and climate change may be significantly altering the level of oxygen on our planet. Now, a new study dives into the impact it could have on marine life, including squids, crabs and octopuses – blindness.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, highlights how important oxygen is to sight and retinal activity for certain marine larvae. Tiny declines in oxygen levels result in significant vision impairment, including almost total blindness in certain species.

“Using in vivo electroretinogram recordings, we show that there is a decrease in retinal sensitivity to light in marine invertebrates when exposed to reduced oxygen availability,” the study’s abstract reads. “We found a 60-100 [percent] reduction in retinal responses in the larvae of cephalopods and crustaceans…

Or more specifically: Octopuses will go blind if they are suddenly dumped in tanks with reduced oxygen…

To test the theory, the animals were put in reduced oxygen environments for approximately 30 minutes.

Time to legislate against free range low-oxygen tanks.

Every day, octopuses survive swimming up and down through different oxygen levels of water, but a slow change over 200 years will blind them. Really.

The research highlights that it is likely there is a change in oxygen in the daily environment of these animals due to swimming at different depths, but it underscores the concern that a permanent decline could be destructive.

You can’t make this stuff up, but you can buy it with enough government grants.

Photo Mr. Mohammed Al Momany, Aqaba, Jordan

10 out of 10 based on 62 ratings

81 comments to Octopuses will go blind thanks to climate change

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    How will we know who is the pick for the World Cup, without sighted Octopi?

    Wont somebody think of the Soccor (née Football) aficionados?

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    • #
      Rob Leviston

      Not that I care much for football, in any of its forms, I was, however, intrigued as to the correct plural form for octopus!
      At first, I was all set to go gungho on how the plural of octopus, is octopi! That’s how I recall it from childhood.
      However, A little bit of Google searching soon put my childhood memories to rest!
      Alas, the correct plural term for octopus, is indeed octopuses.
      https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/what-are-the-plurals-of-octopus-hippopotamus-syllabus

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      • #
        a happy little debunker

        The beautiful thing about language is that if it is understood, then it cannot be incorrect.

        For example, if I were to call the collective noun for spellcheckers ‘a chunder’ – it would not be correct, but you would get where I am going with it.

        I can be a wit, but it is usually spelt with a silent F.

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      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Your original memory was correct, octopi was taught as common usage and as such is acceptable for those of us that were taught that.

        The PC revision, no doubt correct too, is apparently the new version.

        Common usage shouldn’t be dismissed, it’s how the language evolves and octopi, whatever the grammatical debate, was the accepted form.

        KK

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        • #
          Salome

          The problem with ‘octopi’ is that it is incorrect Greek, treating the word as Latin second declension, which it is not. I believe the correct Greek plural is ‘octopodes’. Hence ‘octopuses’–we can remember that.

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          • #
            Kinky Keith

            Hi Salome,

            I think that Rob and I agree with you on the origin of the word.

            As a kid when I was taught “octopi” it seemed pretentious, but it was taught, for whatever reason, as the community standard.

            I was reassuring Rob that his memory was correct and it seems that we all agree about something, but the evolution of language, being what it is, I’m not too sure what that is.

            I hope that we can all move forward peacefully after this discovery that long ago, almost on another planet, someone who had probably been a poor scholar of Ancient Greek, decided to show off his/her erudition by instituting the “pi” as plural.

            It’s a relief, seven decades later to find that the grammatically correct form of plural “es” is the one we should have been using all that time.

            Having reassured Rob that our memories were O.K. I hope that we can all move forward with the belief that in another seven decades another group will acknowledge that the concept of Man Made Global Warming by CO2 was wrongly inflicted on them.

            Peace

            KK

            50

          • #

            I love octopuses
            Because they’re not wusses.

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        • #
          sophocles

          As one of this blog’s resident pedants, I looked it up.
          My “Authoritative reference” is the Concise Oxford Dictionary Tenth Edition [1999]. My other one, the Concise Oxford Dictionary Fourth Edition [1950] differs slightly from the Tenth edition but not in the definition of the plural.

          From the fourth edition: octopus [p: ~es] or octopuses.

          The Tenth Edition lists:
          octopus n (pl: octopuses) …” both editions show the Origin as Gk: oktöpous.
          \The Tenth Edition also makes the following note:

          USAGEoctopus
          The standard plural in English of octopus is octopuses .
          However, since the word comes from Greek, the Greek plural form octopodes is still occasionally used. The plural form octopi formed according to the rules for Latin plurals is incorrect.
          .

          So Octopi has never been correct usage for octopus.
          Take a bow, Rob Leviston and Salome. But don’t go away just yet KK ..

          I also looked at hippopotamus while I was at it. It’s also from the Greek as hippo potamos (water horse) with the plural hippopotamuses or hippopotami.
          syllabus n [pl: ~bi, ~buses][4th and 10th eds] came into English during the 17th Century, as a mis-reading of L. (Latin) sittybas, accusative plural of sittyba, from Gk sittuba, `title slip, label.’ [10th Edition]
          So don’t feel too bad, KK 🙂

          Isn’t it wonderful that English is such a consistent language? It has all these rules each with as many exceptions as adherents. Keeps the mind active 🙂

          40

      • #
        Reed Coray

        There’s away around making an error using the plural of octopus. Don’t say: “I see two octopuses, octopodes, or octopi.” Say instead: “I see one octopus; and by the way, I see another.

        30

    • #
      Geoff

      The ALP has gone blind because of Climate Change. They are ahead of the octopi.

      150

    • #
      Graham Richards

      Do these “scientists/researchers” know what makes hair grow on the palms of their hands & cause blindness. Careful there fellas!

      50

  • #

    I love Octopussy, his arms are so long;
    There’s nothing in nature so sweet as his song.
    ‘Tis true I’d not touch him — no, not for a farm!
    If I keep at a distance he’ll do me no harm.

    Why do I think of George Soros et (big) Al Octopussy
    of UN Trilateral Commission, Globalist out-reach…O what
    long arms, tentacles, you have, my dear?

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      They are pretty intelligent for just Cephlapods. Probably more than your average Green voter.

      161

      • #

        Lol, they lack verbal language so can’t do critical debate. Amazing such cognisance packed into such a brief life span. Oh Octopussy, oh ye humanitee! You have been given Nature’s gift of frontal cortex, explanatory and critical language and opposable thumbs for tool-making. Evolution! Do – not – waste – it – on – sophistry – and – guru – power-play. Oh Socrates, Oh Galileo. Oh Darwin! Oh My! )

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      • #
        Salome

        Cephalopods are amazingly smart for invertebrates. I’m not sure whether some species are smarter than others, but cuttlefish have shown themselves to remember their handlers (or keepers, or whatever) and swim up to greet them when they enter the room. They are really so smart that I don’t much like the idea of eating them, and I’m not usually squeamish about that sort of thing.

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        • #
          Bill in Oz

          But horses, cows, lambs, pigs etc will all do the same thing Salome.

          You may need to veganise your self !

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        • #
          AndyG55

          “Cephalopods are amazingly smart for invertebrates”

          Green and Labor voters aren’t smart…

          .. many could be classed as invertebrates, though.

          70

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Thanks Jo I also put this in a blog on the previous thread.

    Also I thought the Swedes are intelligent beings, Nobel and all that..
    BUT not for this
    https://stopthesethings.com/2019/05/21/swedish-shutdown-shift-from-ever-reliable-nuclear-to-never-reliable-wind-leaves-swedes-scrambling-for-power/
    Dark ages approach Sweden, poor Nordics again hijacked by greentards in the Govt.

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    On the thread topic, the mind boggles, as I put previously.

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  • #
    • #
      AndyG55

      Isn’t it amazing that any sea creatures still exist after the Holocene climate optimum. ! 😉

      Ocean Heat Content is still very much on the cool side compared to most of the last 10000 years.

      50

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Well, perhaps sea levels can be seen as an inverse proxy for ice accumulation.

        Sea levels have oscillated down from a high of 6 metres seven thousand years ago to current levels.

        Since that water is now stored somewhere the safest bet is to assume that it is held as ice somewhere.

        Fits with the cool oceans.

        Sea levels over the last 7000 years suggest that the Earth is cooling.

        But then yesterday was one of the hottest may days evah.

        What am I to believe.

        KK

        40

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Yes and they existed/survived after the Chixalub impactor, present time minus 65 million years!

        40

  • #

    From that Swedish link:

    “A lot of businesses are rather energy-intensive and if we do not have enough capacity there is a potential chance it will impact long-term growth,”

    Realised someone from the Greens party.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      And its the destruction of industry that these sick NWO gaia worshippers are after.

      In thier own words ( paraphrasing ) “We will try and lead the deplorables into a lifestyle of low energy usage to protect ” gaia”, but if the deplorables resist they will be forced in”

      Guess where we are right now ….

      80

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Poor Octopi,

    This post prompts the review of previous posts where we discussed the reaction of our human system to variations in pressure.

    Roy pointed out that high altitude flying required oxygen to cope, whereas in submarine escape training chambers, perhaps TdeFs comment, it was a big help to have an atmosphere with higher CO2 levels to survive.

    Obviously octopussies and humans are very different but we do know quite a lot about how pressure variations can influence humans.

    It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that oxygen levels may mess other lifeforms around. The corollary is that bloodstream oxygen levels in humans are strongly related to the production and disposal of CO2 and that CO2 is the neural regulator, not oxygen.

    Are these “pussy scientists” heading in the right direction?

    KK

    71

    • #
      TdeF

      At 6,000 feet, you have 1/3 less oxygen. That’s the whole of Colorado for example. Mexico City, is at 6,750′. Much of Peru is also 6,000′ to 13,000′. That why there are no octupuses in Peru or Colorado. And quite rare in Mexico. Flying also reduces oxygen from A380s pressured to 4,800 feet to corporate jets pressurized to 20,000 feet with less than half the oxygen, which explains why you do not find octopuses travelling on business. At least not often.

      150

  • #
    Lionell Griffith

    A hypothetical used to increase fear and to garner still more government grants for still more empty hypothetical statements (“may, might, could, should, expected”) without the necessity of any discernible evidence that it WILL happen.

    “If the moon falls into the earth, all life might become extinct including the predicted soon to be blind octopuses.” WOW! I need an annual 10 billion dollar grant to study that issue especially since the increase in CO2 could have an impact upon the impact. After all, it is the seriousness of the charge that matters. Neither evidence, proof, nor substantiated context are necessary.

    This is not science by any stretch of the imagination!

    120

    • #
      sophocles

      Dear Mr. Griffith,
      Re your application for a grant to study the shrinking of the Lunar orbit

      Sir:
      I regret to inform you that your application for a grant to study the shrinking of the Lunar orbit about its parent planet has been rejected. You did not include in your application anything which relates to Climate Change in a reasonable course of time.

      Please study and consider this from an “authoritative, reputable and accurate” source. (Please do not mention flying walrus.)

      Thank you,
      Yours sincerely
      The Famous Eccles (Idiot at Large)
      pp. US Government Grants Application Committee.

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  • #

    Yer posts speak to ‘ what is’ as opposed ter phantasmagoria, Lionell.

    60

  • #
    Antoine D'Arche

    witchcraft masquerading as science

    60

  • #
    EternalOptimist

    Hey James Cook Uni, here’s that sick squid I promised

    90

  • #
    TdeF

    A billion years of evolution, this unique life form is now doomed to instant extinction because it will go blind and starve because of motor cars, planes and hamburgers? That’s life I guess. Rapid adaption though natural selection apparently stopped with the invention of the combustion engine. Amazing.

    So we have moved from unproven human caused CO2 increase to unproven human caused O2 decrease? I guess it makes sense. Nothing is in equilibrium. Mankind controls the planet. Everything is doomed. We dominate all life on earth and now we are using up all the oxygen? So much for equilibrium. All the fish are going to die, if not from blindness but because they will drown.

    Science. The new fantasy world. No such thing as equilibrium. Limited oxygen now. No such thing as more CO2 means more plants means more oxygen, not less. Its a wonder oxygen wasn’t all gone a billion years ago as every breath, animal, every insect, every bushfire, even oxidation of a metal, every chemical reaction means less oxygen and there was only ever a limited amount. I blame Henry Ford.

    I disagree that you couldn’t make this stuff up. Clearly people do.

    131

    • #
      TdeF

      Also the speed of adaption to environmental changes is determined by the lifespan. It is why sex exists. Lifespan is remarkably short in octopussies, even giant species.

      “More than 250 species of octopuses are known, most of them living only long enough to mature and reproduce. As members of the cephalopod group — which includes squid and cuttlefish — octopuses have extraordinary flexibility, intelligence and camouflage abilities to help them avoid predators. Yet most octopuses live only a few years in the wild.”

      As the changes compound every two years or so, since Henry Ford octopusses have had 50 generations which can introduce 100Billion new types of octopus. You would think they could respond a lot faster to environmental threats than, say, humans and some could cope with oxygen levels which have in fact not changed in the last 100 years.

      Besides, thanks to the phenomenon of ocean acidification, CO2 levels should be decreasing?

      The only two things missing from these scares are facts and logic.

      90

      • #
        TdeF

        It’s really a brutal life for octopussies who get through their short lives as fast as they can.
        “Depending on the octopus species, adulthood is usually reached after only one to two years.”

        “The male will seek multiple female mates. Within months of mating with a female, the male will actually die.”

        Consequently, males do not live as long in the wild as females do. Females will carry the fertilized eggs with her until they grow enough to be released, usually in strings hanging around her den. She can lay up to 100,000 eggs. For the next several months, the female protects her eggs from predators and ensures they receive sufficient oxygen.

        During these times, which can last 2 to 10 months depending on the octopus species, the female does not eat and slowly wastes away.

        She usually lives long enough to blow the eggs free from her den so the paralarvae can break free and join the plankton cloud.

        No time then to go shopping, have a holiday in Dubai or learn a new language. 100,000 eggs, creating massive opportunities for species diversity and adaption to low oxygen. In human terms, it’s not enough time to do a crossword or sudoko.

        Eat, mate and die, but 100,000 kids. I wonder if they worry about our survival?

        100

        • #
          TdeF

          If any animal was built for rapid adaption to the environment, it is the octopus. So what was the problem again?

          70

    • #
      peter

      Many years ago I did a short marine biology course. We went out on a reef excursion, diving onto the reef to explore the range of life on the reef. The two academics escorting us captured two octopi(for what good reason I was unsure)that appeared to be a mated pair in the same spot and brought them on-board the power-boat to take back to the lab on-shore. Even though carried in large plastic bins full of water, both octopi immediately suffered severe stress, strongly pumping water through their gills with their large eyes fixed firmly on us. In spite of having three hearts, one died before we got back to shore and the other died soon after being put in a large aerated aquarium tank. No useful octopus biology was determined from this exercise. Stress is a symptom of intelligence.

      Octopi are believed to be some of the most intelligent invertebrates on Earth BY FAR! Which is more than I can say for the two academics who captured these poor creatures for no good reason and showed no remorse or empathy for the demise of these two intelligent animals. Since that time I’ve had no interest in eating calamari and a decreasing respect for university academics. Were the academics who conducted the oxygen-depletion research the same ones who murdered two innocent octopi years ago?

      40

  • #
    Andrew McRae

    Octopus’s will go blind

    Dear oh dear, Jo. Is that some attempt to appeal to millennials?
    You can go modern, or you can go Greek, but just chucking the apostrophe of possession onto the end does not make a plural.

    Next you’ll be telling me “the Spice Girl’s were the best band of the 90’s.” (Shudder.)

    Yes, if we’re going to get upset over 120 parts per million I can definitely get upset over an apostrophe.

    _ _ _ _ _

    Bonus non-nitpicky on-topic comment:

    Remember that global warming makes fish lose their hearing, so obviously what will happen is that the blind octopuses will be holding fins with the deaf fish in a new symbiotic relationship. Life…uh… finds a way!

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Geez they must be getting desperate with this one , obviously they keep a reserve of scary bedtime stories .

    100

    • #
      TdeF

      L.Ron Hubbard who invented Scientology was a science fiction writer before he became a leader of his own religion. Space ships like DC8s, aliens bombed in volcanoes and Thetans inhabiting humans. All standard stuff. Climate Scientology is no different. It’s all about the money.

      70

      • #
        TdeF

        And General Xenu and he invented the ‘science’of Dianetics. Of course he also had a PhD in Nuclear Physics, an essential tool for understanding alien power sources. Tom Cruise believes it all. I wonder what he thinks of Climate Change and blind octopuses?

        60

  • #
    cedarhill

    The Greenies and Lefties have assumed the old Churchill mantra: “Never give up!”

    That old Chinese curse of living in interesting times should be changed to living in Climate Change Times.

    60

  • #
    Deano

    Varying wildly from species to species, the retina has the ability to regulate it’s O2 levels independent of systemic oxygen – except when systemic oxygen levels falls below certain thresholds obviously. Dunking octopi’esses into low O2 environments, measuring decreased ERG signals then drawing the conclusion that any reduction in O2 pressure causes blindness is science that needs it’s bum spanked.

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Yes.

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      • #
        Deano

        And (oblivious to Keith’s dry wit jibe) some species will develop additional blood vessels (the process of vascularization) if oxygen levels remain low for extended periods which can compensate for permanently low O2 conditions – but has the risk of growing over the retina, hampering it’s ability to receive light.

        The research is still junk.

        00

  • #
    pat

    British Steel to go extinct, at least partly due to CAGW policies!

    21 May: UK Sun: HARD DEAL FOR STEEL British Steel could collapse TODAY with 25,000 jobs at risk
    The jobs will be lost unless the struggling company is handed an emergency Government loan
    It’s said administrators will be formally appointed on Wednesday unless a deal is struck by Tuesday afternoon…

    21 May: Daily Mail: In April, British Steel secured a £100million loan from the government to pay its EU carbon bill and avoid a hefty fine.
    The bloc’s trading rules mean industrial polluters can pay for their previous year’s emissions using carbon credits. Companies can also trade their credits to raise cash.
    The EU suspended UK businesses’ access to free carbon permits – alowing the emission of 1,000kg of CO2 – until the ratification of a Brexit deal…

    21 May: Reuters: British Steel risks collapse with 25,000 jobs under threat
    by Guy Faulconbridge, Maytaal Angel
    British steel firms pay some of the highest green taxes and energy costs in the world, and are also saddled with high labour and logistics costs, as well as uncertainties surrounding Britain’s planned exit from the European Union…
    The company also secured a government loan of around 120 million pounds ($154 million) at the start of the month to enable it to comply with the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) rules…

    21 May: BBC: British Steel on verge of administration
    In April, British Steel borrowed £100m from the government to enable it to pay an EU carbon bill, so it could avoid a steep fine…
    However, having already lent £100m to cover a genuinely Brexit-related carbon emissions bill – further assistance to a private company struggling in a deeply challenged industry may be a precedent they would rather not set…
    It is understood that along with administration, nationalisation or a management buyout are being discussed as fall-back options for the company…

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  • #
    neil

    The only thing these guys got wrong with there proposal to con some tax payer funded grant cash is they failed to put “and climate change” in the title of their paper. It’s well known among researchers that no matter what the study area you must put “and climate change” in the title to get funding.

    Various species of cephalopods live from a depth of a few centimetres (ie. blue ring octopus) to 3000 metres, giant squid. The oxygen levels over this range varies dramatically and surprisingly the deeper you go the more oxygen there is because there is less biomass to consume it. Below 3000 mtrs it drops off because there isn’t enough water movement to replenish it.

    My favorite is “Increased extinction rates of native mammals due to predation by feral cats and climate change” I didn’t realise climate change hunted native mammals.

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    • #
      sophocles

      Do you think we could train it to hunt Climate Scientists, Greens and their Useful Idiots? Do these qualify as huntable “native mammals”?

      60

  • #
    pat

    Former Labor candidate calls for Premier to decide on Adani or leave
    Courier Mail-11 hours ago
    FORMER Labor candidate Mike Brunker says if Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk can’t make a “captain’s call” on Adani, the party should consider changing leaders…

    21 May: AFR: CFMEU says Labor needs to reset party after ‘weak’ Bill Shorten
    by Mark Ludlow and David Marin-Guzman
    As the Palaszczuk government in Queensland comes under pressure to grant final approvals for Adani’s controversial $2 billion Carmichael mine, CFMEU Queensland district vice-president Shane Brunker said pandering to inner-city voters was killing the ALP.
    Mr Brunker warned the Left-controlled Palaszczuk government could face a similar fate at next year’s state election unless it changed direction on its approach to regional Queensland and the mining industry…
    “We’ve been inside the Labor Party banging on for years about how they’re losing touch with their supporter base and this just supports everything we’ve been saying to them,” he told The Australian Financial Review…

    Mr Brunker said the Labor Party – created in the Queensland town of Barcaldine in 1891 – had lost touch with its traditional support base, which contributed to its electoral wipe-out in Queensland in Saturday’s election.
    “The party’s got to come back to being a Labor Party for the workers. Those so-called green voters within the party should go to the Greens party. If [Labor] keep going the way they are, they’re going to get wiped out next election in Queensland,” he said…

    A former Labor candidate and former Whitsundays Regional Council mayor, Mike Brunker – a cousin of Shane – said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk should be dumped if she didn’t approve the Adani mine.
    “If the Premier can’t make a captain’s call on this, then both her and [Deputy Premier] Jackie Trad should resign. They have to wake up. Yes, the environment is important, but jobs are number one,” he said.
    “They need to sort this out in the next month. If this is still hanging around in October or November this year, they are gone.”…
    https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/cfmeu-says-labor-needs-to-reset-party-after-weak-bill-shorten-20190521-p51piz

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  • #
    pat

    Earthworms worry “climate scientists”:

    20 May: NYT: ‘Earthworm Dilemma’ Has Climate Scientists Racing to Keep Up
    Worms are wriggling into Earth’s northernmost forests, creating major unknowns for climate-change models.
    By Alanna Mitchell
    Cindy Shaw, a carbon-research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, studies the boreal forest — the world’s most northerly forest, which circles the top of the globe like a ring of hair around a balding head.
    A few years ago, while conducting a study in northern Alberta to see how the forest floor was recovering after oil and gas activity, she saw something she had never seen there before: earthworms…

    Native earthworms disappeared from most of northern North America 10,000 years ago, during the ice age. Now invasive earthworm species from southern Europe — survivors of that frozen epoch, and introduced to this continent by European settlers centuries ago — are making their way through northern forests, their spread hastened by roads, timber and petroleum activity, tire treads, boats, anglers and even gardeners.
    As the worms feed, they release into the atmosphere much of the carbon stored in the forest floor. Climate scientists are worried…READ ON
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/science/earthworms-soil-climate.html?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

    update:

    20 May: ClimateChangeNews: Brazil reverses decision to cancel Latin American climate week
    Government backtracks under pressure from mayor of host city, who is a political friend of president Jair Bolsonaro
    By Fabiano Maisonnave in Manaus
    Under pressure from a key political ally, Brazil’s ministry of environment said it will now host the UN’s Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week in Salvador in August.

    In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry said it had changed its mind about cancelling the event after talks with the mayor of Salvador Antonio Carlos Magalhães Neto.
    Neto is also the president of DEM, a right-wing party aligned with the government which controls important ministries, such as agriculture, and the presidency of the congress’ lower chamber…
    “As a mayor, I’m very happy to help bring another big event to our city. Salvador is ready to welcome UN officials, researchers and other participants”, tweeted Magalhães Neto…
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/05/20/brazil-reverses-decision-cancel-latin-american-climate-week/

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  • #
    TdeF

    Miss McCormick is a PhD candidate who has co-authored many papers on squid and light sensitivity. It’s her field.

    However it’s the connection with Climate Change which brings international attention, fame and fortune.

    All it takes is one suggestion “climate change may be significantly altering the level of oxygen on our planet” and off you go, climate change is killing squid.

    A bit like Michael Man who had to switch out of Physics if he wanted a PhD and went into tree rings. It’s when you connect to an end of world scenario that fortune awaits. Then you have to have the money to sue everyone who says you are a crook. How is that going now, with Dr. Tim Ball? Or Steyn vs Mann which is now in its 8th year?

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    • #
      TdeF

      Let’s look at the unexplained statement “climate change may be significantly altering the level of oxygen on our planet”
      and do a little calculation to determine the maximum scale of this devastating loss of oxygen problem.

      Let’s presume the increase since 1900 in CO2 from .025% to .04% is entirely due to fossil fuel, turning O2 into CO2.

      O2 is around 22%, so this change of 0.015% will reduce O2 proportionally by 0.07%. Would you notice?

      For example, oxygen decreases with altitude anyway, so how far would you have to climb to achieve this?

      50% at 15,000 feet then this 0.07% is equivalent to climbing .0007*15,000/.5 or 21′. So the same loss of oxygen would be achieved by going up a flight of stairs or two.

      Of course octopuses cannot handle stairs, so they would be devastated.

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    I guess today that old nursery rhyme would go something like this…

    Hickory-Dickory-Dock, two blind octopussies ran up the clock (because they couldn’t see where they were going).
    The clock struck one but the other one got away and here it is, pleading it’s cause to an indifferent world, Hickory-Dickory-Dock.

    Don’t you wish it had been just an hour later?

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Any resemblance of the foregoing to old nursery rhymes; poetry; or the slightest tiny shred of talent in the author is purely intentional.

      You have no idea how hard it is to mess something up that badly just to make a point. I shall be exhausted all day from that heroic effort to show that the case for climate change to be causing the poor abused octopus go blind is thinner than my talent at poetry.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    Octopuses now losing their sight,
    Is the latest alarmist big fright,
    But we know they were wrong,
    In their claims all along,
    So why would they this time be right?

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  • #
    Mary E

    So now the scientists know dunking octopuses into O2 deprived tanks will blind them. And somehow this means global warming will cause the O2 to drop and blind all the octopuses. No proof the O2 is dropping that much, or fast enough, to be an issue, but hey, global warming brings miracles of all kinds.

    In another bit of alarmism that might affect the poor octopusies as well (more ocean/even less O2) I noticed the sea-level rise will be 2 meters by 2100. Wonder if the sea knows it ought to be rising that much that fast? 2.5 centimeters a year is what it has hit, for a slow flood – but will it wait until midnight on 2099 and then burst forth? No one knows! The horror of it all!

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      AndyG55

      I would call it extreme cruelty to octopuses.

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        Bodge it an scarpa

        It’s a shame that the Society for prevention of cruelty to animal is also likely to be warmists, otherwise a case could be made against the so called researchers in this article.

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    Kinky Keith

    In climbing Mount Everest it was considered essential to spend time acclimatising at an elevated base camp.

    Couldn’t we buy tents for the octopussies?

    KK

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    As the octopus said, “Pull the other leg!”

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    Zane

    Poor old octopus, no one is safe from being co-opted into the green globalist agenda.

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    Richard

    How to Obtain Prestigious Scientific Grants

    1) Write a grant proposal claiming that climate change will cause some harm to something somewhere.
    2) Deposit the grant check, change the “grant proposal” to a “report”, then flesh it out with lots of jargon, change future tense to past tense, claim your study proved beyond a doubt that said horrible thing might possibly, or could maybe happen due to climate change. Be sure to admonish the world in your conclusion.
    3) Proclaim you can prove many other horrible things linked to climate change.
    4) Hold you hands out to catch the money dumped into them.

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