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
Plankton from the latin meaning Ocean Drifter include plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton). Copepods are zooplankton from the Subphylum Crustacea, there are 13,000 species of Copepod and this is also the name of our research yacht. We are the only yacht in the world called Copepod.
Our vision and mission is to restore the health of our oceans, mitigate climate change, and bring our planet back to is natural condition before the Chemical Revolution started with the production of toxic forever chemicals and plastic in the 1950’s.
Marine plankton are the lungs for the entire planet, but we have polluted the oceans and poisoned more than 50% of all life. Currently the plankton is dying at a rate of 1% year on year, by 2045 nearly 90% will be lost. We will also lose all the whales, birds, seals and food supply for 3 billion people. We will have runaway climate change, because the life support system for the plant will be gone. We can can recover the oceans if we eliminate micro plastic, partially combusted carbon and toxic chemical pollution and this is the Mission of the GOES Foundation.
Research yacht COPEPOD
The World's Greatest Carbon Bank
Few people have ever heard of marine Copepods, they are tiny marine insects of around 1mm in size. They are the most numerous animal on the planet, and collectively have more mass than all terrestrial animals combined, they represent the greatest Carbon Bank, and our best hope to save the planet from climate change.
There are 5 giga tonnes of Copepods in the world's oceans, this is equivalent to 17 million 747 jumbo jets, and if you laid the jets nose to tail, they would go around the Earth 31 times. Every night they migrate from a depth of 200m to the surface to feed on algae. The mass migration moves more water than the moon and the tides, yet this has not been factored into the climate change model.
The copepods defecate 30 times more carbon than humanity inputs from burning fossil fuels. Around 6 % reaches the abyss where it is locked out. This is your real carbon bank where 3 giga tonnes are deposited every year.
Yet we have killed more than 50% of the copepods from pollution over the last 70 years because they love to eat micro-plastic loaded with toxic chemicals. In 25 years time 90% will be gone. We are too late to stop climate change, it's now a question of survival for humanity. If we are going to have any chance of survival, we need to stop the pollution and save the oceans. This is why our research vessel is called COPEPOD.
Sustainable drinking water for rural communities
The Goes Foundation is the CSR project for www.CleanWaterWave.com which is a 100% asset locked social enterprise to bring sustainable wastewater treatment and clean drinking water to communities around the world that do not have access to clean water and can't afford to buy water.
Many of the island communities and places we visit are water and economically stressed communities where up to 80% of all disease is from the consumption of contaminated water.
The CleanWaterWave team have developed 100% sustainable drinking water systems. In all our travels in Africa and SE Asia we have never seen a rural community drinking water system running for more than 12 months. The CWW CAFE filter (Clean Aqua For Everyone) aims to solve this problem.
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 more than up to 90% of our oxygen and remove most of our carbon dioxide. They represent 90% of all biological productivity on the whole planet. In effect 1% of all life on the planet is dying every year.
By 2045 years we will have lost 75-80% of all plankton, the oceans will become more acidic with a pH of 7.95. We will then lose all of the remaining whales, seals, birds and the fish, and along with them a food supply for 2 billion people. Life on Earth is going to change, in fact life on earth may become impossible.
It doesn’t take science to tell you we cannot survive without healthy oceans, common sense tells us we need to stop poisoning them with toxic chemicals and plastic. If we had not killed more than 50% of the plankton with toxic chemicals since the chemical revolution during the 1950’s, then we would not have had elevated CO2 and climate change.
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 the failing health of our planet, the prevailing focus has been increasing carbon dioxide levels from burning of fossil fuels. It is important to reduce carbon emissions, but we must also eliminate toxic chemical pollution. The oceans are the lungs of the planet but since the Chemical Revolution in the 1950’s and the production of herbicides and pesticides, the oceans are suffocating under a toxic chemical cocktail. Marine toxic chemicals are in every type of household cleaner and personal care product. The world now manufactures thousands of different toxic chemicals that are killing the plankton and halting 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’s absolutely and completely impossible to overestimate the importance of marine plankton in the maintenance and now delicate balance of life on Earth. We are all witness to the loss of phytoplankton, the decline in oxygen production and the well published CO2 increase. Our oceans are already more acidic and climate change is accelerating at a much faster rate than previously predicted. Marine plankton produce oils and surfactants that form the SML surface micro layer that regulate evaporation of water. Water vapour in the atmosphere is the primary GHG and accounts for 70% of all GHGs greenhouse gases. CO2 is only a minor gas
We must restore our oceans.
It’s not just about saving whales and dolphins – WE cannot survive if we keep poisoning them. If we don’t address this, they’ll become too acidic and we’ll witness a cascade failure of the wider planetary ecosystem. Terrestrial life on earth will become impossible unless you have an oxygen tank on your back! At the current rates of decline, we will reach this tipping point any time in the next 25 years. It will happen quickly, be impossible to reverse, and we will have run-away climate change and mass starvation on a global scale, unless we act now.
THE GOOD NEWS
If we take all terrestrial life living on land, it takes in the region of 60 years to double in mass and lock out carbon. Most of terrestrial ecology is in equilibrium, for example when a tree grows it removes carbon dioxide, but when it dies it releases exactly the same amount of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. For this reason mature forest such as the Amazon, are carbon neutral, except when you cut them down and burn the wood, then they add about 10% to the world's carbon budget.
Only ecosystems that are not in balance sequester carbon, such as marsh lands, wetlands, peat bogs and mangrove swamps. These environments account for all terrestrial carbon sequestration.
By far the largest carbon bank on the planet is the deep ocean. When marine life dies it eventually heads for the abyss and is locked out for thousands of years. The good news is that most marine life is actually under 1mm in size and has a doubling time of just 3 days.
If we take the toxic brakes off marine life, then the oceanic ecosystems and all marine life can recover and it will do this super fast.
Universal sea change requires global engagement. AND it’s easy for you to help. Whether you’re in a position of influence, sailing the oceans or you are simply eager to change a few bad buying habits and protect the world you live in, it’s time to change — go non-toxic!
yacht COPEPOD flying the flag for the Oceans
UNIVERSAL SEA CHANGE
The GOES Foundation is taking urgent action to lead the essential and universal sea change needed to address climate change. We are working worldwide to hold back the toxic wave that is poisoning our oceans.
GOES engages people and organizations at every level of society, from children to world leaders and intrepid adventurers who help by sailing over the oceans at high and low latitudes to collect our plankton samples.
GOES uses all the digital technology and AI tools it can to demonstrate the need for the urgent ban of all toxic chemicals, hazardous waste and plastics from households and industry.
We should really just take a precautionary approach, or a reality check and just stop using highly toxic chemicals. GOES will endeavour to collect thousands of samples to provide indisputable evidence to help policy makers accelerate their decision making and help get these chemicals out of our lives.
Photo from Copepod of the Ria Formosa in Southern Portugal, one of the few remaining sea-horse sanctuaries