It's getting too loud for whales to talk

Some environmental groups and the United Nations just released a report documenting that whales and dolphins, who of course communicate through sound, are having their voices doused by industrial noise - ship engines, sonar tests (familiar), weapons tests, military exercises and seismic surveying activities.

Here's a quick summary:

That sound pollution — everything from increasing commercial shipping and seismic surveys to a new generation of military sonar — is not only confounding the mammals, it also is further threatening the survival of these endangered animals.

Studies show that these cetaceans, which once communicated over thousands of miles (kilometers) to forage and mate, are losing touch with each other, the experts said on the sidelines of a U.N. wildlife conference in Rome.

These people got together to try to fix what they are doing. Nice measure. Here's what they're talking about doing:

Measures suggested include rerouting shipping and installing quieter engines as well as cutting speed and banning tests and sonar use in areas known to be inhabited by the endangered animals.

I'm sure they mean well, but here are some thoughts:

1. It's not ok to inflict this damage upon any animal, endangered or otherwise. There is nothing we, as humans, are doing that can justify the ruining of others' lives, even if we can't see them. We've got no fucking right.
   
2. Keeping this behavior up will ensure that lots of animals will become endangered.
   

Unfortunately, there is an even bigger problem, one that has no quick-fix solution:

An indirect source of noise pollution may also be coming from climate change, which is altering the chemistry of the oceans and making sound travel farther through sea water, the experts said...

Other research suggests that rising levels of carbon dioxide are increasing the acidity of the Earth's oceans, making sound travel farther through sea water.

The study by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in the United States shows the changes may mean some sound frequencies [not the ones whales and dolphins use] are traveling 10 percent farther than a few centuries ago. That could increase to 70 percent by 2050 if greenhouse gases are not cut.

Yeah, yeah, so what? So they have to hear loud noises. Who doesn't, right? What's the matter with it?

Environmental groups also are increasingly finding cases of beached whales and dolphins that can be linked to sound pollution, Simmonds said.

Marine mammals are turning up on the world's beaches with tissue damage similar to that found in divers suffering from decompression sickness. The condition, known as the bends, causes gas bubbles to form in the bloodstream upon surfacing too quickly.

Scientists say the use of military sonar or seismic testing may have scared the animals into diving and surfacing beyond their physical limits, Simmonds said.

Several species of cetaceans are already listed as endangered or critically endangered from other causes, including hunting, chemical pollution, collisions with boats and entanglements with fishing equipment. Though it is not yet known precisely how many animals are affected, sound pollution is increasingly being recognized as a serious factor, the experts said.

Oh right, that. Killing them. Even if you don't give a fuck about dolphins and whales dying, remember that ecosystems are complex chains and you cannot simply remove one part of it. There are dire consequences, things that cannot be predicted.

However, governments seem ready to take action, said Nick Nutall, a spokesman for the U.N. Environment Program...

Not the United States, of course. The people running this country are actually taking anti-action. The Supreme Court just agreed with the United States Navy that all the sonar testing they can muster up has never hurt a single creature. So smart again with those "no proven links" statements/lies.