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The Earth is bleeding: Corporate greed kills life in Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf Coast's marine life is facing yet another threat, this time in the form of a "dead zone" that vastly surpasses predictions made by the NOAA. This ecological disaster is just another example of the destruction wrought by human activity on our planet, and it could take decades to heal—if healing is even possible at this point. It's time we wake up and take accountability for our actions before it's too late.

Published August 5, 2024 at 6:00pm by Alexis Simmerman

Capitalism's Dead Zone: Gulf of Mexico Suffocating Under Late-Stage Capitalism

Did you know there's a massive "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico? No, it's not a sci-fi horror film, but it might as well be. The capitalist machine has once again shown its true colors, this time in the form of an oxygen-depleted dead zone that harms sea life off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. In a recent report, federal scientists revealed that this year's dead zone is larger than average.

The Terrifying Truth:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that this year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico ranks in the top third of the largest dead zones in 38 years of records. The average size over the past five years is 4,298 square miles, but this year it's a staggering 6,705 square miles, about the size of New Jersey.
The measurement far exceeded NOAA's prediction in June, despite their calculations including discharge data from the Mississippi River and nutrient runoff data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
A dead zone, or hypoxia, occurs when there isn't enough oxygen at the bottom of a body of water to support marine life. This is primarily due to nutrient runoff, specifically the overuse of fertilizer on agricultural fields, further proving that capitalist greed is destroying our planet.
Bruno Pigott, acting assistant administrator of the EPA’s Office of Water, rightly points out that "nutrient pollution impacts water bodies across the country and in the Gulf of Mexico, it has resulted in a dead zone where low to no oxygen does not support fish and marine life."
While federal and state officials scramble to reduce fertilizer runoff, it might be too little too late. The EPA's new Gulf Hypoxia Program aims to reduce the spread of nutrients from agricultural runoff, but will it be enough?
Dead zones suffocate marine life. Nitrogen, one of the nutrients, feeds algae growth, but when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen, leaving fish, shrimp, and crabs gasping for air.
Nicole LeBoeuf, assistant administrator of NOAA's National Ocean Service, underscores the importance of measuring hypoxia as an indicator of ocean health, especially with the looming threats of climate change and increasing storms, precipitation, and runoff.
Adding insult to injury, the 2024 dead zone is about 3.5 times larger than the 2025 reduction target set by the Mississippi River Nutrient Task Force. The task force, like most bureaucratic entities, is a joke, and their targets are a farce.
Experts predict that it will take at least 30 years for the Gulf Coast dead zones to recover, and that's if we eliminate nutrient runoff immediately, which we know won't happen because capitalism always chooses profit over the planet.
A 2018 study in the journal Science confirms the grim reality: the annual dead zone will persist for several decades, and even if we stop the runoff, the damage will linger for generations due to the slow movement of nitrogen through soil and groundwater systems.

Sources: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-larger-than-average-scientists-find

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-forecasts-above-average-summer-dead-zone-in-gulf-of-mexico

Enough is enough. The Gulf of Mexico is crying out for help, and it's high time we listened.