Scottish scientists have discovered a catastrophic loss of life in our oceans

[Emrys]

51. Some in the scientific community are not impressed with this report.

A few examples among many:

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Prof Michael E. Mann
@MichaelEMann

This is NOT peer-reviewed science.
In fact, it's nonsense.

See @simondonner:

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The promotion of bad science is unhelpful regardless of what agenda (denial or doomism) may be behind it.

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Simon Donner
@simondonner

Lots of things to worry about in the world... the claim that Atlantic plankton are disappearing definitely isn't one of them. It is wrong, and ridiculous too. See this thread:

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Jack Brudenell
@BrudenellJp

@simondonner hi Simon, would be interested to get your thoughts on this article. It scared the hell out of me. https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/humanity-will-not-survive-extinction-of-most-marine-plants-and-animals/

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Seaver Wang
@wang_seaver

"The plankton are dead!" Doomer reddit keeps dredging up only the most credible research to boost to the top page.
-the article has less text than some postal stamps
-no link to report
-research team's site really raises eyebrows

Just proof of an alarmist headline's sheer power.

Seaver Wang
@wang_seaver

The finding is bogus, full stop. I don't even need to read the report. We've had a thing called the Continuous Plankton Recorder for 60+ years.

In general any sweeping trans-oceanic finding like this is immediate cause for skepticism. The ocean + marine life are heterogenous.

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Seaver Wang
@wang_seaver

A sizeable chunk of my dissertation research was on marine plankton in the western North Atlantic.

We sampled phytoplankton blooms off the New England coast 2015 and 2017 with abundances of hundreds of millions of cells/liter.

Oceans ain't empty guys.

Seaver Wang
@wang_seaver

"The team, led by marine biologist and former Scottish Government adviser Dr Howard Dryden, has compiled and analysed information from 13 vessels and more than 500 data points."

LMAO.

For those unaware, the guy has a history:

Prof. Eliot Jacobson
@EliotJacobson

Google scholar shows that the principal author Howard Dryden does not have a track record of research outside of the GOES foundation. Clearly, ocean acidification is a huge long-term issue with ominous impacts. But the accelerated timeline is not clear.

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Seaver Wang
@wang_seaver

Also "13 vessels and more than 500 data points" for a finding this sweeping in its assertions is enough to make any microbial oceanographer fall off their lab bench laughing.

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Prof. Eliot Jacobson
@EliotJacobson

From the GOES Project paper: "Climate regulating ocean plants and animals are being destroyed by toxic chemicals and plastics, accelerating our path towards ocean pH 7.95 in 25 years which will devastate humanity."

This is absof**kinglutely NOT tl;dr

Prof. Eliot Jacobson
@EliotJacobson

The abstract is here (with a link in the abstract to download the paper):

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3860950

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Prof. Eliot Jacobson
@EliotJacobson

Google scholar shows that the principal author Howard Dryden does not have a track record of research outside of the GOES foundation. Clearly, ocean acidification is a huge long-term issue with ominous impacts. But the accelerated timeline is not clear.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Howard+Dryden