The divine word and law have been entrusted to Israel as a blessing, the psalmist reminds the people this Sunday. From the moment God first separated land from sea and entrusted the oceans to humanity, they have blessed us with abundance. But a new study warns of the imminent and catastrophic extinctions of sea life--the worst collapse of life in millions of years--because of climate change and overfishing.

Time is running short to counter hazards such as the collapse of coral reefs or the spread of low-oxygen "dead zones," according to the study led by the International Program on the State of the Ocean (IPSO).

"We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation," said the expert study which will be presented to the United Nations.

"The findings are shocking," Alex Rogers, scientific director of IPSO, wrote of the conclusions from a 2011 workshop of ocean experts staged by IPSO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature at Oxford University.

Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the seas faced a "deadly trio" of threats: higher temperatures, acidification, and lack of oxygen known as anoxia that also have factored in several past mass extinctions. A buildup of carbon dioxide, blamed by the U.N. panel of climate scientists on human use of fossil fuels, is heating the planet. Absorbed into the oceans, it causes acidification, while runoff of fertilizers and pollution stokes anoxia.

Fish are the main source of protein for a fifth of the world's population, and the seas cycle oxygen and help absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activities.

The study said that overfishing is the easiest contributing factor for governments to reverse, while countering global warming will require a major shift away from fossil fuels toward cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.

Source: An article by Jan Harvey for Reuters