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Article: Dead seas nutrient pollution in coastal waters.(Oceans Of Trouble)
- Article from:
- Multinational Monitor
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Essential Information, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE ENGLISH POET WILLIAM BLAKE claimed we could see the world in a grain of sand. Substitute a bit of sediment from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, and observe how right he was. The record of chemical change recorded in the sediment, and in dead, bottom-dwelling creatures like crabs, britflestars and seaworms around it, points to a world far different than the one Blake knew. Every summer, following spring flows on the Mississippi, the Gulf experiences a massive die off or "dead zone," the result of nutrient pollution.
Human modification of the global carbon cycle (through the burning of fossil fuels) has garnered the lion's share of public ...