Problems Abound

A recent issue of The Economist did a special report on our oceans called “Troubled Waters.” The series of articles not only covered the impact of global warming on the seas, but also other man-made environmental excesses such as over fishing (one article says that more than three-quarters of all marine fish species are below, or on the brink of falling below, sustainable levels) and pollution (there are two masses of plastic materials that have collected on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, each as large as the United States).