Sure, the midwest could become a tropical paradise. But then there's this:
Bathing was banned along 15 kilometres of the Italian Riviera yesterday when more than a hundred holidaymakers were taken to hospital after being infected by toxic tropical algae.Doctors at Genoa, where most of the victims were treated, said that the poisonous micro-organisms were almost invisible. Ostreopsis ovata are single-cell algae normally found in tropical waters but they have migrated to the Mediterranean because of rising sea temperatures.
Doctors at the San Martino Hospital in Genoa said that the symptoms suffered by swimmers -- children and adults -- included nausea, breathing difficulties, high fever, stomach cramps, irritation of the eyes, vomiting and diarrhoea.
I'll take the cold, thanks.
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by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
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Read an article about this a few days ago, and how it is affecting fisheries all over. One of my brothers is moving to Africa to teach medicine, and while we were having a fun (for us, disgusting for others around, I'm sure) discussion about parasites, he mentioned that the malaria belt is expanding as climates become more hospitable for Anapholes.
Oh, my that's so scary! Is there anything they can do to eradicate the deadly algae? What's the treatment given for those affected people?
What's worse, is that this sort of thing isn't necessarily just due to CO2 causing warming, but also from dissolved CO2 making the oceans more acidic. So next time someone expresses doubts as to the effect of CO2 on the global environment, point out that the problem isn't just the greenhouse effect.
Here's a very powerful 5 part series that appeared in last week's Los Angeles Times entitled "Altered Oceans". It's a lot of reading, but well worth it. That story from Italy is becoming all too frequent. You might have to register to read the articles, but it is free.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.spe…
For more depressing news about the ocean, see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/073106G.shtml
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/073106EC.shtml
and from Dr. Ron Shimek's blog:
Coral Reefs in Crisis parts I and II (Global warming isn't the only thing killing the oceans)
http://blog.ronshimek.com/?p=180
http://blog.ronshimek.com/?p=181
-David
And poison ivy. Super yuck!