Ocean's 'dead zone' continues to expand

The lifeless 'dead zone' off the Louisiana coast is set to expand to record-breaking levels this year, thanks to profligate agricultural polluters along the Mississippi river basin:

The spread of the dead zone is partly due to widespread flooding, possibly caused by global warming, which this year brought especially large quantities of chemical waste into the Mississippi. The single biggest culprit, though, is the American infatuation with corn ethanol: Farmers are planting more corn per acre than ever before in a bid to cash in on federal biofuel mandates. That’s rapidly depleting the soil along the banks of the Mississippi, leading to a massive new demand for the chemical fertilizers responsible for deoxygenation.

Researchers say that we’re rapidly approaching the point of no return. If the dead zone continues to spread, shrimp and other seabed dwellers could be left with nowhere to run and find themselves literally pushed off the continental shelf. If that happens, the Gulf’s valuable crustaceans could be permanently replaced by an expanse of worthless - and possibly carcinogenic - bacterial sludge.

Read the rest here.