• i’m sure this has the potential to be an actual problem but this does not pass the vibe check:

    • for one thing, i can’t find the actual report being reported on here, which is weird. it’s neither linked in the article nor can i find it on the website of the org that did it.
    • for another thing, this seems to only be reported on by the sunday post, which is doubly weird since “90% plankton loss” is basically an apocalyptic outcome which would already be having far-reaching, material consequences for marine ecosystems and the world as a whole
    • for another thing, because i can’t find the study and this only appears to be getting the attention of the sunday post, there is nothing to suggest this has been peer reviewed which of course means it could be completely made up and the scientific equivalent of doomerism clickbait.

    i’m also not totally sure on the veracity or credibility of the Goes Foundation as a whole, since their work seems to primarily be one dude’s, and he seems to be mostly interested in selling you on his technology on the Goes Foundation page about him.

    separately, there’s the unsettled question of if plankton species are declining at all–phytoplankton, for example, may not be–and whether their carbon storage is either. take for example this brief summary of a study that released just a few days ago: Plankton will store more carbon as Earth’s climate warms, but storage beyond the end of the century is uncertain