This is your ocean, on acid

[Acolin]

This is your ocean, on acid

Photo by stoncel.com. Not that it will lift your spirits over the holiday weekend, but consider it must reading anyway: Elizabeth Kolbert's latest piece on climate change in the Nov. 20 New Yorker. ("The Darkening Sea - What carbon emissions are doing to the ocean.") The article focuses on one of the lesser-known aspects of global warmingâ€"the rising levels of acidity of the world's oceans. Scientific estimates put current acidity levels at 30% higher than they were before the industrial revolution, and if they continue to rise, the concept of a dead seaâ€"and thus a dead planetâ€"isn't too far-fetched. One researcher notes:

"For an organism that lives on land, the two most important factors are temperature and moisture. And for an organism that lives in the water the two most important factors are temperature and acidity. So this is just a profound, profound change. It's a systemic change. You could have food chains collapse, and fisheries ultimately with them, because most of the fish we get from the ocean are at the end of long food chains."

Oy.

Love this site:

http://blogs.business2.com/waterlog/

 

[Acolin]

Here is the excellent New Yorker article:


THE DARKENING SEA
by ELIZABETH KOLBERT

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061120fa_fact3?page=1

 

[mrferrit]

very interesting thanks for the articles
i wonder how long it will take before i am towing some of them boats in though lol

 

[mflamb]

"It is expected that such an increase will produce an eventual global temperature rise of between three and a half and seven degrees Fahrenheit, and that this, in turn, will prompt a string of disasters, including fiercer hurricanes, more deadly droughts, the disappearance of most remaining glaciers, the melting of the Arctic ice cap, and the inundation of many of the world’s major coastal cities."
I have a problem with anyone whose message includes "Al Gore's Global Warming Theories". Science cannot be used to prove that theory. I am a believer that we are polluting the oceans as well as the rest of the Earth, which is a proven fact and needs serious attention. I'm still trying to figure out what man did to produce the last "global warming" that ended the last ice age.
Mike

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Al Gore doesn't know anything about global warming, it's just a bluf. He's too busy writing virus protection software to keep his main invention (the internet) going!

 

[doomicon]

TitusvileSurfer LMAO!

 

[mflamb]

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are!!! hahaha

 

[Acolin]

He and Clinton may have only given away the Arpnet system and nationalized Network Solutions’ domain name pricing with the ICANN oversight committee, but there is no denying the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters in the last 25 years.

 

[mflamb]

Agreed...but it is cyclic. What did we do to kill all the dinosaurs???