Sound is the whale’s most important tool for finding food, navigating and finding a mate. Now, global warming is wreaking havoc in the oceans. As the acoustic landscape changes, whales are forced to move, alter their mating calls – or fall completely silent when hunger takes over.
Scientists and government agencies are closely monitoring developments in the Pacific Ocean. A new El Niño could lead to sharply rising temperatures and global heat records in the coming year.
Everything points in the wrong direction. Never before has the Earth’s climate been so out of balance, warns the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
For the people of the Pacific Islands, the sea is life, it provides most of their food, it regulates their climate. It’s a familiar friend, but for these low-lying island nations, rising seas are now threatening their very existence. Ironically, this threat has its origins far away, where emissions from industries that have enriched the world's most powerful industrial nations are the biggest contributors to the changes that make Elson Kelen, a community leader on Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, fear for the future of his children and grandchildren.
