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Matt Orsagh's avatar

Stefan. Thank you for this. And thank you for the work GOES is doing. I'm not much of a seafarer, but that looks like a great trip.

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Stefan Flos's avatar

Yep: the ocean is the blind spot of mankind - covering 71% of the earth and is interconnected.

I would like to add one more worrying point: I sailed the ocean from Rotterdam to the Caribbean and joined the citizens science project of goesfoundation.com to sample microplastics in the ocean.

I did find some but what i found most was soot! The ocean is covered with a blanket of soot - unburned carbon particles from shipping and forest fires ( on ice it is grey but you hardly see it in the ocean ) and the micro surface layer on the ocean is also affected.

I made a video of my sampling procedure…

https://vimeo.com/h2videonl/goes

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Dave Gardner's avatar

Thanks, Matt, for this excellent, if depressing, summary. We can do something about this. But we have to be aware, we have to care, and scientists need to relentlessly hammer us with these truths.

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Iona Conner's avatar

Oh gosh, Matt, this is terrible. Thank you for this one. I live at the Jersey Shore and am starting a Climate Cafe in September; I'm also starting up my global warming newspaper again. I'm calling it "Earth Speaks." May I have your permission to publish this in my newspaper? If so, what would you like me to say at the end to encourage people to sign up for your Substack, if you're going to continue doing these, and I hope you are. I seem to recall something about your stopping???

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Jan Andrew Bloxham's avatar

Nice post. I believe shifting baselines explain part of our inaction.

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