The Azerbaijan State News Agency

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Oceans face catastrophe, panel warns Ian Munro

25.06.2011 [13:21]
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Baku, June 25 (AZERTAC). WITH climate change, pollution and overfishing, humans have created the conditions for a catastrophic extermination of marine species, an international panel of experts warned yesterday.

Research across all areas of marine science showed that the rate of the oceans` degeneration was faster than anyone had predicted, according to the 27-member expert panel convened at Oxford University in April. The rate at which the oceans were absorbing carbon was already greater than at the time of the last globally significant marine extinction event, 55 million years ago.

``The findings are shocking,`` said marine biologist and scientific director of the International Program on the State of the Ocean, Alex Rogers. ``We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime and, worse, our children`s and generations beyond that.”