A looming oxygen crisis and its impact on our oceans

We've known for a while that we are poisoning the oceans and that human emissions of carbon dioxide, left unchecked, would likely have devastating consequences.  A 2010 study found that oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred.

And we've known those impacts might last a long, long time —a 2009 study concluded ocean dead zones "devoid of fish and seafood" are poised to expand and "remain for thousands of years."