1998 United Nations Year of the Oceans

Sustainable Oceans and Coastal Zones
Program in Global Sustainability
University of California Irvine 92697-7070

Course Readings

NOTICE: Federal Actions on the Clean Water Act: The Vice President's Memoradum (comments needed by 8 Dec. 1997)

    Freshwater is the world's next gold. Freshwater is only about 2.5% of the total volume of the water on Earth, but just 0.8% is in aquifers, soils, lakes, wetlands, rivers, plants and the atmosphere (Postel et al. 1996). Freshwater sustains ecosystems vital for human welfare, agriculture, industrial production, and human health.

    Postel et al. (1996) estimates the available freshwater resource worldwide to be about 9,830 km³/year. Humanity now uses 25% of all terrestrial evapotranspiration and 54% of all runoff (Postel et al. 1996). If current trends continue, total appropriation of this available amount would be about 2,205 km³/year, or 70% of the total.

    Agriculture uses about 87% of the world's available water, and receives huge subsidies. In California, farmers pay 0.5 cents per cubic meter of water whereas the public pays 25 cents per cubic meter. Undercharging results in inefficient use of water, waste and the planting of low value crops (e.g. alfalfa in the Colorado Desert).

    Postel et al. (1996) urge major investments to be made

in improving efficiency of use,
recycling, and
pollution control; plus
changes in agricultural cropping patters and water use, and
removing marginal lands from irrigation.

    New dam construction could increase the amount of runoff used by about 10% over the next 30 years, but population growth is expected to increase more than 45% during this period (Postel et al. 1996). Here in southern California, the Metropolitan Water District is constructing the Eastside Reservoir near Hemet, CA at a cost of $2 billion. The dam will be the largest earth and rock filled dam in the country. But Pimental et al. 91997) says, "The era of constructing large dams and conveyance systems to meet water demand in the United States is drawing to a close; the limited water supply and established infrastructure require that demand be managed effectively within the available water supply."

Dramatic Changes Ahead in Agriculture

    The expansion of agriculture is over. Agriculture has plowed nearly all the lands that can be plowed worldwide, reaching all of the most accessible areas of the planet. Food stress and poverty in some nations have even moved agriculture out of the flatlands and into remote areas now deforested and terraced. In many areas of Africa and Southeast Asia, farmers literally farm the mountains, terracing crops right up the slopes to the top.

    Agriculture uses most of the world's water (estimated at 87% of the world's fresh water withdrawn). With population growth, agriculture is now competing with urban areas for water (witness MWD in Los Angeles and San Diego fighting like children over water from the Imperial Valley they want to divert from agriculture to urban southern California).

    Agriculture and urban water users now take so much water from some rivers that all of the water is allocated. These rivers run dry before the reach the Sea: the Colorado, USA-Mexico; the Yellow, China; and the Amu Dar'ya/Aral Sea, Russia.

    But the world's irrigated areas are not expanding even through humanity is taking more of the world's runoff (rivers). Irrigated areas have been declining due to depletion of underground aquifers (for example, the Ogallala Aquifer in central USA) and the diversion of waters to cities. 66% of the irrigation water in Texas and 38% in California is pumped from ground water (Pimental et al. 1997). The USDA estimates that 21% of irrigated cropland is being watered from unsustainable underground aquifers (Brown 1997).

    Most of the world's increased food output is no longer due to expansion in the area extent of agriculture, but due to intensification of production on the existing areas. Agricultural areas are actually declining due to massive urbanization and the infrastructure devoted to the automobile.

    Existing agricultural areas are becoming exhausted due to overuse of fertilizers and poor farming practices. Runoff from agriculture to surface and groundwaters is the leading cause of nonpoint pollution in the USA (EPA 1994).

    As a result, grain yield per hectare have been slowing since 1990, rising only 3% from 1990-96, or 0.5% per year. This rise does not keep pace with population growth at 1.6% per year (Brown 1997).

    Add to these concerns the growing and unprecedented rise in affluence in Asia. States Brown (1997), "There is no historical precedent for so many people moving up the food chain so fast." Producing 1 kg of animal protein requires about 100 times more water than producing 1 kg of vegetable protein (Pimental et al. 1997). In China, grain consumption by animals has skyrocketed. From 1990-95 China's grain consumption increased by 40 million tons; 33 million tons were consumed as animal feeds (Brown 1997). Similar but less dramatic trends are occurring in Indonesia, India, and other Asian nations. Most of this grain is imported from the USA.

Community-Based Action Programs

    American Farmland Trust has released a  guidebook on how to prevent farmland from being destroyed. The  book, "Saving American Farmland: What Works," is designed for policy makers, communities and concerned citizens and addresses the findings of AFT's March 1997 "Farming on the Edge" report that 4.3 million acres of farmland were lost between 1982 and 1992 to development. The guidebook complements AFT's Farmland Information Center which promotes alternatives to selling farm or ranch lands for development. Contact Shannon Weller, AFT,  (202)659-5170 ext. 3032.

    Also see CARP, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia for another community-based agriculture program.

Nutrients: point and non-point pollution

    Humans have altered the nitrogen cycle of the coastal ocean, presenting "perhaps the greatest threat to the integrity of coastal ecosystems (NRC 1993, 1994). In temperate seas, nitrogen controls primary production (Nixon et al. 1996), in contrast to lakes in the temperate zone that are controlled by phosphorus loading (Schindler 1977). Humans have altered the nutrient cycling of nitrogen to such a level that overproduction of plankton occurs and eutrophication (over fertilization) results. Eutrophication leads to anoxia in stratified waters, and is becoming more prevalent, with anoxic events witnessed in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea, Chesapeake Bay, North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in recent years. Eutrophication causes losses of diversity in macrophytic algae, seagrasses, plankton, corals and the bethic ecosystem (Vitousek et al. 1997).

    In the developed countries, pollution from point sources has been controlled over the past thirty years by strengthening of legislation (The Clean Water Act in the United States) and regulations on point source discharges. Now the principal challenge in the developed countries is dealing with non-point pollution. Polluted waters from city streets, construction sites, agricultural lands has caused serious impairment of coastal water quality worldwide. This pollution is responsible for closed beaches, shellfish fishing areas, fish kills, harmful algal blooms (HABs), sediment contamination and destruction of coral reefs.

    In March 1997, 104 organizations wrote Congress and asked for increased funding to deal with non-point pollution. On 23 Sept. 1997, Congressional Representatives N. Lowrey (D-NY), W. Gilchrest (R-Md) and M. castle (R-De) and F. Pallone (D-NJ) formulated a $2.5 million amendment to fund non-pollution control (Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121 or 800-962-3524 to talk to your representative about this issue)

Thermal Pollution

    Discharge of heated waters have the ability to change the structure and function of coatl marine communities. Impacts of fly ash from coal-fired power plants, hot salty water and residual chlorine are also important. Dumping of fly ash in coastal waters and into the atmosphere has caused severe impacts on spinner dolphins and mangroves in an ara of the south coast of India, and has been reported to change the number of species of plankton.
 

Waste Oil Pollution

    An estimated 170 million gallons of used motor oil is dumped in landfills, storm drains, and backyards each yar (American Petroleum Institute 1995). The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was 11 million gallons. Just recently (Feb. 1998), it was found that plants in wetlands near San Francisco Bay have pulled 89% of toxic selenium from millions of gallons of wastewater flowing daily for an oil refinery
 
Mercury Pollution of Fish

HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms)

    Blooms of noxious algae have increased in the past 20 years worldwide and are being blamed on inputs of excess nutrients due to human activities. Some of these noxious algae produce powerful nerve toxins which can an cause massive fish kills or even kill a person who unsuspectingly eats shellfish that was harvested from waters tainted with toxic algae. The case of the "Cell from Hell" (Pfiesteria piscicida (National Ag. Library Site) now blooming in East Coast waters (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland) is especially noteworthy. Until recently, Pfiesteria was only a curiosity of academic specialists. In the past few years, this organism has been blamed in fish kills unprecedented in their size, and been linked to neurological damage in people who worked or swam in these waters (memory loss, learning difficulties, and decreases in white blood cell content upwards of 20% have been recorded in people who were exposed to Pfiesteria). Blooms of Pfiesteria have been linked to nutrient enrichment of coastal waters due to non-point pollution from agriculture. Nutrients in waters allow huge population increases of toxic organisms in water that were unknown or rare. The US EPA has pledged to adopt new standards on nutrient inputs to waters.

    Its hard to image an organism more bizarre than Pfiesteria. When no fish prey are present, it goes into a cyst form and settles to the bottom, lying dormant in the sediments. It can also emerge to form an amoeba that feeds on algae in the water column, and even can become a photosynthetic plankton-like organism, except it "steals" the chloroplasts from algae from its algal prey and uses photosythnesis only to supplement its nutrient supply in the water column. In the presence of certain species of fish, however, it becomes a "monster" predator capable of mass fish kills. As a "predatory" dinoflagellete it produces different types of toxins that do an incredible array of damage to fish. Some toxins attack internal organs. Another works on the fish immune system. And one toxin actually strips the skin off of the fish! (Burkholder 1997 & the P. piscicida Site at North Carolina State University).  To those who have witnessed the power of Pfiesteria report thousands of fish flopping and thrashing on the water surface, and fish actually beaching themselves, fleeing the water as if on fire.

    A popular book has been written on the subject which is highly recommended:

Barker, R. 1996. And the waters turned to blood. Simon and Shuster.

    In addition, please visit "Red Tides" and Harmful Algal Blooms produced by the National Office of Marine Biotoxins and Harmful Algal Blooms and housed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This site focuses on algae that produce potent neurotoxins that "can be transferred through the food web where they affect and even kill the higher forms of life such as zooplankton, shellfish, fish, birds, marine mammals, and even humans that feed either directly or indirectly on them." The site is divided into the following sections: photos of "Red Tide" blooms, species responsible for harmful effects, adverse impacts at higher trophic levels, human illness associated with algal blooms, and regional impacts.

Roodman, D. 1997. Reforming subsidies, p. 132-150. Chapter 8 in State of the World. Worldwatch, Washington, DC.

Webliography
 
American Fisheries Society
Aquatic Biodiversity Crisis (Nature Conservancy 1997)
"Troubled Waters Statement" (Marine Conservation Biology Institute 1997)
Fishy solution to toxic blues
Fish Health in the Chesapeake Bay
Information Center for the Environment (ICE), University of California, Davis (UCD)
Greenpeace International Toxics Campaign Home Page
Greenpeace Marine Services Home Page
National Fisherman Homepage
Salmon Conflict Investigations
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service World Wide Web Site

Population is the Key

    Demands for water and food and pollution from agriculture are driven by the addition of nearly 90 million persons a year to the Earth. Add to this the unheard to growth in affluence in East Asia. Population growth is tied to urbanization, ecosystem destruction, food, water, energy, health, public safety and community stability issues. Curbing population growth is the key issue for future environmental and social sustainability.

    Countries with per capita water availability of less than 1,700 liters per person per day are classified as "water stressed" nations. Those with per capita availability of less than 1,000 liters per person face water scarcity where water availability hampers economic development and human well being (Engelman and LeRoy 1996). US water availability is 5,100 liters per capita per day (Pimental et al. 1997).

    Various scenarios of population growth into the next century give great concern over water availability for human needs and agriculture. Water shortages threaten to undermine political stability, economic development and health for millions of people. If the highest projections of population growth by the UN are used, by 2050, 65% of the projected world population, 7.7 billion persons, living in 66 nations face either water scarcity or water stress. Under the lowest estimates, 3.5 billion people in 51 countries will be affected. At least 20 nations get more than half of their water from rivers that cross national boundaries (Pimental et al. 1997).

    The difference between these two figures illustrate clearly how different rates of population growth could affect the water of water supplies around the globe.

    In the USA, the net increase of 3 million persons per year is blamed from the loss of million of acres of farmland to urbanization and lack of water. 60% of the US population growth is caused by foreign immigration, a portion that will rise to 90% in coming decades if current immigration policies continue (Pimental 1997).

    In developing nations, the population/food nexus is even more alarming. Over the next 20 years, of every 10,000 new births, only 50 will be in the rich countries (Swaminathan 1992). "A poverty curtain divides the world materially and philosophically. One world is literate, the other largely illiterate; one industrial and urban, the other predominately agrarian and rural; one consumption oriented, and the other struggling for survival" (Swaminathan 1992). The rich countries today consume about 20 times more resources per capita than the poor countries. But as economies have strengthened, especially in Southeast Asia, consumption rates of resources are rising dramatically.

    Recently, a group of scientists have banded together to ask world leaders to provide leadership to initiate incentives to reduce family size and conserve natural resources in order to achieve a high standard of living (Pimental and Dodds 1997).

Ecological Engineering

    Chinese ecological engineering is defined by Ma (1988) as a "specially designed system of production processes in which the principles of species symbiosis and the cycling and regeneration of substances in an ecological systems are applied...to make a multi-step us of substances."

    One example is agroecological engineering. A system combining fish ponds, agroforestry, animal husbandry, herb and wood production is used, with an emphasis and multiple use of inputs and waste recycling through many pathways. The ecological principles of self-design, self-organization, and capacity of ecosystems are used. The differences between Chinese and Western styles of ecological engineering are largely the heavy human intervention and subsidies, and the total focus on food production in China (Mitsch 1993; Mitsch et al. 1993).

    Chinese ecological ecosystem principles are:

1. adding new food chain components
2. promoting symbioses
3. using multi-layering of wastes as resources in food chains
4. promoting recycling
5. restoration of ecosystems.

    An excellent example of using the Chinese principles in ecological engineering is the industrial ecology experiment in Fiji (Kane 1997).

Bibliography

Brown, L. 1997. Can we raise grain yields fast enough? Worldwatch 10(4): 9-17.

Engleman and LeRoy. 1996. Sustaining Water: Population and the Future of Renewable Water Supplies. Population Action International.

EPA. 1994. National water quality inventory, 1992: Report to Congress. Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, US EPA, Washington, DC.

Kane, H. 1997. Eco-farming in Fiji. Worldwatch 10(4): 29-34.

Mitsch, W. et al. 1993. Ecological engineering- contrasting experiences in China with the West.  Ecological Engineering 2: 177-191.

Nixon, S. et al. The fate of nitrogen and phosphorus at the land-sea margin of the North Atlantic Ocean. Biogeochemistry 35: 141-180.

NRC (National Research Council). 1993. Managing wastewater in coastal urban areas. NRC, Washington, DC.

NRC (National Research Council). 1994. Priorities for coastal science. NRC, Washington, DC.

Pimentel, D. et al. 1997. Water resources: agriculture, the environment, and society. BioScience 47: 97-106.

Pinkham, R. and S. Chaplin. 1996. Water 2010. Four scenarios for 21st century water systems. Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, CO.

Postel, S. et al. 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water. Science 271: 785-788.

Plucknett, D. and D. Winkelman. 1995. Technology for sustainable agriculture. Scientific American 273(3): 182-186.

Swaminathan, M.S. 1992. Cultivating food for a developing world. Environmental Science and Technology 26(6): 1104-1107.

Pimental, D. 1997. US food production threatened by rapid population growth! CCN, 2000 P Street, Suite 240, Washington, DC 20038.

Schindler, D. 1977. Evolution of phosphorus limitation in lakes. Science 195: 260-262.

Vitousek, P. et al. 1997. Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle: sources and consequences. Ecological Applications 7(3): 737-750.