Life on Earth depends upon the oceans
Throw the earth a Life Line because we have less than 10 years to eliminate pollution, and prevent a cascade failure of the marine ecosystem
presentation from COP26
The latest news of the GOES Project
Track us on our journey GOES fleet of vessels The GOES report Library
Humanity has now killed more life on earth than the meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs
What we do...
1. We run the largest Citizen Science project to measure plankton and pollution in the world's oceans, managed from s/v COPEPOD
- Follow us around the world, Our mission log and location; https://my.yb.tl/Copepod
2. Delivering GOES presentation at every port and at international events, COP26 Presentation by Dr.Howard Dryden
3. Advocacy, understanding the science, collecting data to make informed decisions and writing reports, that allow us to make the correct choices; Download latest report
4. Solution and action, with knowledge of the mechanisms it allows u to provide focused solutions. Thats why we are working with indigenous people, they represent 5% of the world's population but look after 80% of environment.
5. Wastewater treatment solutions, Eden Cycle
You can make a difference too....
A child was walking along a beach after a storm and found it covered in starfish. Upset at the sight, the child started putting them back in the water one by one. An old man came up and said “what are you doing? There are thousands of starfish-way too many to make a difference” The child looked at the old man, picked up a starfish and put it in the ocean and said. “It made a difference to that one”.
If we all do something such as stop using cosmetics containing Oxybenzone, or reduce the use of plastic, it will make a difference
Mission of Copepod
Plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) are included in the term plankton, which comes from the Latin word for "ocean drifter". Copepods are zooplankton from the Subphylum Crustacea; there are 13,000 Copepod species; and this is also the name of our research vessel. We are the only Copepod yacht in the world.
Our vision and mission is to restore the health of our oceans, mitigate climate change, and return our planet to its natural state prior to the Chemical Revolution, which began in the 1950s with the production of toxic forever chemicals and plastic.
Marine plankton are the planet's lungs, but we have polluted the oceans and poisoned more than half of all life. Currently, plankton is dying at a 1% annual rate; by 2045, nearly 90% will be gone. We will also lose all whales, birds, and seals, as well as the food supply for 3 billion people. We will have runaway climate change because the plant's life support system will be destroyed. The GOES Foundation's mission is to eliminate microplastic, partially combusted carbon, and toxic chemical pollution from the oceans.
Copepod survey report click here to download
s/v Copepod and Bocas del Toro
When we first arrived in Bocas del Toro in Panama, we were stunned by the natural beauty, marine life and animal life. There is 10 times more marine life in Bocas than in the Eastern Caribbean, and it is still relatively unspoilt by people and tourists. However tourists are coming here and in one of the first bays we anchored for the night, we were woken by the sound of chainsaws and complaining Howler Monkeys. So we decided to purchase the rainforest to save it from development. We are now establishing a nature reserve and environmental centre for climate change and education.
Sadly we now we have to put out much loved sailing yacht, a Hallberg Rassy 43 on the market, it would be too much work for us to look after and sail Copepod properly. The resources would also be put to helping us to develop the Nature research and protect the forest and surrounding marine life for the future.
Copepod survey click here More information on Copepod, HallbergRassy.uk and ApolloDuck
Research yacht COPEPOD
The World's Greatest Carbon Bank
Few people have heard of marine Copepods, which are tiny marine insects measuring about 1mm in size. They are the most numerous animal on the planet, with more mass than all terrestrial animals combined; they are the greatest Carbon Bank, and our best hope for preventing climate change.
Copepods weigh 5 gigatonnes in the world's oceans, which is equivalent to 17 million 747 jumbo jets, and if the jets were laid nose to tail, they would circle the Earth 31 times. They migrate from a depth of 200 meters to the surface every night to feed on algae. The mass migration moves more water than the moon and tides combined, but this is not accounted for in the climate change model.
Copepods excrete 30 times more carbon than humans do by burning fossil fuels. Around 6% makes it to the abyss and is locked out. This is your true carbon bank, where 3 gigatonnes of carbon are deposited each year.
Nonetheless, over the last 70 years, we have killed more than half of the copepods due to pollution because they love to eat micro-plastic loaded with toxic chemicals. 90% will be gone in 25 years. We are too late to stop climate change; it is now a matter of life and death for humanity. We must stop pollution and save the oceans if we are to have any chance of survival. This is why we call our research vessel COPEPOD.
Sustainable drinking water for rural communities
The Goes Foundation is the CSR project for www.CleanWaterWave.com, a 100% asset locked social enterprise bringing sustainable wastewater treatment and clean drinking water to communities worldwide that do not have access to clean water and cannot afford to buy water.
Many of the island communities and locations we visit are water and economically stressed, with up to 80% of all disease caused by contaminated water.
The CleanWaterWave team has created completely sustainable drinking water systems.
During our travels in Africa and Southeast Asia, we have never seen a rural community drinking water system that has been operational for more than a year. The CWW CAFE filter (Clean Aqua For Everyone) seeks to address this issue.
THE BAD NEWS
NASA’s satellite imaging states that the mass of phytoplankton plants has been reducing by 1% year on year over the last 20 years. Research by Dalhousie University, published in NATURE, confirms a reduction of more than 40% from 1950's (Up to 2012).
Plankton provide up to 90% of our oxygen and remove the majority of our carbon dioxide. They account for 90% of all biological productivity on the planet. Every year, roughly 1% of all life on Earth dies.
We will have lost 80%-90% of all plankton by 2045, and the oceans will become more acidic, with a pH of 7.95. We will then lose all remaining whales, seals, birds, and fish, as well as a food supply for 2 billion people. Life on Earth will change; indeed, life on Earth may become impossible.
We cannot survive without healthy oceans, and common sense tells us that we must stop poisoning them with toxic chemicals and plastic. We would not have had elevated CO2 and climate change if we had not killed more than half of the plankton with toxic chemicals since the 1950s chemical revolution.
Life on earth will be impossible if we destroy the plankton, and this will happen by 2045 unless we stop the pollution
It is a grim road towards catastrophic ocean system breakdown by 2045...
Because all pollution eventually ends up in the oceans.
sunscreen, pharmaceuticals, care tyres, plastic, herbicides, pesticides, PCBs, PBDE
When it comes to our planet's deteriorating health, the dominant focus has been on rising carbon dioxide levels caused by the use of fossil fuels. We must reduce carbon emissions while also eliminating toxic chemical pollution. The oceans are the planet's lungs, but since the 1950s and the production of herbicides and pesticides, the oceans have been suffocating under a toxic chemical cocktail. Every type of household cleaner and personal care product contains marine toxic chemicals. Thousands of different toxic chemicals are now being manufactured around the world, killing plankton and impeding their ability to produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
If we had not poisoned the oceans, we could have prevented climate change.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of marine plankton in the maintenance and now precarious balance of life on Earth. We can all see the loss of phytoplankton, the decrease in oxygen production, and the well-documented CO2 increase. Our oceans are already becoming more acidic, and climate change is accelerating much faster than predicted. Oils and surfactants produced by marine plankton form the SML surface micro layer, which regulates water evaporation. The primary GHG is water vapour in the atmosphere, which accounts for 70% of all GHGs greenhouse gases. CO2 is a minor gas.
We must restore our oceans.
It's not just about saving whales and dolphins; we can't live if we continue to poison them. If we do not address this, they will become too acidic, resulting in a cascade failure of the global ecosystem. Life on Earth will become impossible unless you have an oxygen tank strapped to your back! We will reach this tipping point within the next 25 years if current rates of decline continue. Unless we act now, it will happen quickly and irreversibly, resulting in runaway climate change and mass starvation on a global scale.
THE GOOD NEWS
If we consider all terrestrial life on land, it takes approximately 60 years to double in mass and lock out carbon. The majority of terrestrial ecology is in balance; for example, when a tree grows, it removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but when it dies, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. As a result, mature forests like the Amazon are carbon neutral, unless they are cut down and burned, in which case they add about 10% to the world's carbon budget.
Only out-of-balance ecosystems, such as marshlands, wetlands, peat bogs, and mangrove swamps, sequester carbon. All terrestrial carbon sequestration occurs in these environments.
The deep ocean is by far the largest carbon bank on the planet. When marine life dies, it falls into the abyss and is trapped for thousands of years. The good news is that most marine life is less than 1mm in size and has a doubling time of only three days.
If we remove the toxic brakes on marine life, the oceanic ecosystems and all marine life will recover quickly.
Universal sea change necessitates global participation. AND it's simple for you to assist. Whether you're in a position of power, sailing the seas, or simply want to change a few bad purchasing habits and help protect the world you live in, it's time to make a change — go non-toxic!
yacht COPEPOD flying the flag for the Oceans
UNIVERSAL SEA CHANGE
The GOES Foundation is acting quickly to lead the necessary and universal sea change required to address climate change. We are working around the world to stem the toxic tide that is polluting our oceans.
GOES involves people and organizations at all levels of society, from children to world leaders and daring adventurers who sail across the oceans at high and low latitudes to collect plankton samples.
GOES employs all available digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to demonstrate the urgent need to eliminate all toxic chemicals, hazardous waste, and plastics from homes and industry.
We should simply stop using highly toxic chemicals as a precautionary measure or as a reality check. GOES will collect thousands of samples in order to provide irrefutable evidence to policymakers, allowing them to make faster decisions and get these chemicals out of our lives.
Copepod photo of the Ria Formosa in Southern Portugal, one of the last remaining sea-horse sanctuaries