Ocean Acidification: The Climate Change Buffer, But another Environmental Disaster in the Making

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Ocean Acidification The Climate Change Buffer,
But another Environmental Disaster in the Making

• http//www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-foy/ocean-acidi
  fication-the-c_b_4310443.html

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• After attending the talk "Ocean Acidification -
  The Other CO2 Problem" here at COP19 in Warsaw,
  it is quite clear that there is another
  significant issue concerning climate change.
  About one-quarter of the human-made CO2 emissions
  have been absorbed by oceans creating yet another
  environmental problem of global concern. We are
  changing seawater chemistry through a type of
  carbon sequestration. This creates a potential
  environmental disaster in the ocean and delays
  the inevitable temperature rise associated with
  our CO2 emissions. Starting with the impact from
  the ocean's perspective -- CO2 is absorbed and
  dissolved in water which forms carbonic acid.

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• Carbonic acid releases the acidic proton,
  increasing acidity and decreasing the amount of
  carbonate ion, tipping the balance of the
  "saturation state" of calcium carbonate -- the
  building block for shells. These changes in the
  ocean water chemistry spell disaster not just for
  shellfish (molluscs) but for the entire marine
  ecosystem. Acidification threatens yields of
  seafood for communities that rely on the oceans
  for their economy and to feed their own people.
  The resulting lower pH is also dissolving coral
  reefs which provide a habitat for close to 25
  percent of worldwide marine species

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A few quick facts concerning acidification from
the Ocean Acidification International
Coordination Center (OA-ICC)

• The acid level in the ocean is changing at a
  pace that is a hundred times faster than any time
  during the last 20million years
• There has been an increase of more than 30
  percent acidity since the beginning of the
  Industrial Revolution
• If CO2 emissions continue at the current rate,
  the acidity rise could reach 150 percent by the
  end of the century
• At the current rate of acidification, the polar
  oceans could actually begin to dissolve the
  shells of living organisms within decades
• Many coral reefs could disappear by the middle
  of this century
• Three billion people rely on the oceans for
  their animal protein intake, and acidification
  threatens their food security

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• There is hope though. The IPCC started to
  recognize ocean acidification in 2007, and RIO
  20 called for significant initiatives to
  mitigate the effect. In addition, GOA-ON, the
  Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network is
  trying to get a better handle on the extent of
  acidification worldwide. In Mexico in 2010 at
  COP16, the Cancun Agreements barely mentioned
  Ocean Acidification and identified it as a "slow
  moving event". We now recognize that the
  atmosphere and the ocean are inexorably linked.

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