DEAD ZONES are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans

Scientists did not have any clear evidence of what was causing the dead zones, and they were clearly alarmed by the situation. The Oregonian was alarmed too. Therefore the scientists and the journalists resorted to the usual tactic of blaming any unexplained environmental malady on human-induced causes - in this case (as in so many others) it was anthropogenic global warming.
July 6, 2006, The Oregonian reported:

The ocean is behaving strangely along the west coast in the latest of a string of unusual years, with scientists reporting crashing bird populations off California for the second consecutive year and hiccups in the nutrients that feed marine life off Oregon.

It has researchers wondering more openly whether global warming is driving unpredictable shifts with repercussions for familiar species such as seabirds and salmon.

"The evidence is accumulating that climate change is likely disrupting the atmospheric and oceanic processes that drive our ocean system," said Jane Lubchenco, a professor of marine biology at Oregon State University.

Although the ocean's behavior is always changing, "we're seeing more variability in some new and bizarre ways," she said.

...

Research also suggests warming will lead to the kind of unpredictable and extreme swings in conditions the Oregon coast has seen in the last few years, Lubchenco said.

Then on August 10, 2006, The Oregonian reported:

Ocean scientists took their first look Tuesday into the oxygen-starved "dead zone" spreading off the Oregon Coast and were shocked by what they saw: a lifeless wasteland of thousands of dead crabs, starfish and no live fish at all.

"It was a real eye-opener for all of us," said Hal Weeks, a marine ecologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "I don't think anybody expected this sort of thing."

Dead Dungeness crabs off Cape Perpetua, just south of Yachats, "were like jellybeans in a jar. You just can't count them, there were so many."

...

Scientists suspect swings in the Earth's climate tied to global warming may be shifting wind conditions to bring about such grim results.

Then on August 13, 2006, The Oregonian's liberal political columnist, David Sarasohn joined in quoting Lubchenco:

"We don't know what's causing it," says Lubchenco. "We can't say with any certainty that it's caused by climate change.
"But there aren't many other suspects out there. It is consistent with what we've seen with climate change."

On August 1, 2007, The Oregonian reported:

For the sixth year in a row, a suffocating blanket of oxygen-starved water is forming off the central Oregon coast, with marine life struggling to endure the repeated trauma, Oregon State University scientists say.

The return of the "dead zone," where water holds so little oxygen that fish and other life cannot survive, suggests a fundamental shift in wind and water patterns off Oregon that may reflect global warming trends, the scientists said.

On February 15, 2008, The Oregonian reported again that the dead zones were likely caused by global warming, and even doubted natural factors as causes for the dead zones:

The eerie "dead zones" that suffocated marine life off the Oregon coast in recent summers are unlike anything recorded over the past 50 years and could be driven by stronger winds that might reflect global warming trends.
That's the new conclusion published in the national journal Science today by an Oregon State University team that has tracked conditions as summer oxygen levels in the coastal ocean plummeted --falling to zero in 2006.

...

Global warming is expected to heat the air over land more than over the ocean, creating the potential for the increased differences in temperatures to drive more winds, Barth said. That might fuel more upwelling, although it remains difficult to blame any single phenomenon on global warming.

"We don't have proof of the climate change signal, but the physics is consistent," Chan said.

The records Chan examined covered several cycles of El Nino and La Nina, large-scale shifts in ocean conditions that influence the climate of the Pacific Northwest. But those shifts did not appear to have any connection to the spread of low-oxygen conditions off Oregon, the researchers said.

Then on, February 18, 2008, The Oregonian's editorial board jumped into the fray with an alarming response to a new Oregon State University study of the dead zones:

It gets worse, though perhaps you can guess what's coming next. The team concluded that the phenomenon may be driven by intense winds, which in turn may be linked to global warming. No one knows for sure, but it doesn't appear likely that the dead zones are going to disappear.

The effects on the ocean ecosystem are frightening to contemplate, overshadowed only by the dire implications for the planet as a whole.

Obviously, all the evidence isn't in. No one can say for certain that the dead zones are caused by global warming. But the report provides strong evidence that we don't have the luxury of waiting until all the evidence is stacked up around us, like dead starfish.

Now the recent phenomenon of dead zones has largely subsided, and The Oregonian has flip-flopped on the cause. On September 8, they reported:

As fishing communities suffer through the first nearly complete closure of ocean salmon catches, some good news is surfacing off the coast: The Oregon ocean is once again booming with life.

A flush of cold northern water, rich with food, is nurturing a dramatic turnaround in ocean conditions this year, marine experts say.

...

The dose of chilly water from the Gulf of Alaska may also be what is bringing an odd mix of sea creatures onto Oregon's shores this summer.

...

Also, the eerie "dead zones" that suffocated marine life along the coast in recent summers have been less pronounced this year, Oregon State University scientists said.

The inflow of northern water has kept the Oregon ocean around 46 degrees, colder than any year since 1999, Peterson said (Bill Peterson, an oceanographer based at Newport's Hatfield Marine Science Center). This may signal a new cool phase in an ocean temperature pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

...

The northern water arriving off Oregon is especially rich because La Nina climate conditions, characterized by lower water temperatures, helped mix the water, said Jack Barth, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University. That helped draw more nutrients up from the depths.

"The source water is better than average," he said.

The cold, sub-Arctic water holds less oxygen, which could prove negative for ocean life if compounded by the appearance of dead zones. Dead zones have appeared unusually close to shore along the Oregon coast in recent years, often driven by strong local upwelling of nutrient-rich water that causes explosions of tiny marine organisms.

The tone of the reporting has definitely changed. Not one mention of global warming or climate change. Less alarming and apocalypic phrasing, and more sober explaining of the natural processes involved. I don't think that it is a coincidence that this change in tone by The Oregonian has occurred after two of the coolest years we've had here in Oregon in a long time.

It's just one newspaper. It's just one issue. But, it's worth a significant shift in tone that is worth pointing out.

On July 22, Dr. Roy Spencer gave his testimony to Congress, and said:

"In conclusion, I am predicting today, that the theory that man-kind is mostly responsible for global warming will slowly fade away in the coming years, as will the warming itself. And I trust you would agree Madam Chair, that such a result deserves to be greeted with relief."

This change in The Oregonian's reporting on dead zones is evidence that AGW theory is indeed starting to fade away. But, we're along from it fading away completely.

GORE LIED note: Links to The Oregonian source material for the earlier articles is unavailable, as they were obtained from the newpaper's archives at my local library.

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