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[E3 wise]

 Ocean acidification.JPG   78.35K   0 downloads


Ok simple fact. The oceans absorb1/3 of all CO2 in the atmosphere.  This absorption changes the Ph balance making the oceans more acidic.   Why care, When a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2) enters the ocean, it immediately forms carbonic acid by binding to, and locking up, carbonate molecules.
Corals, clams, various plankton, crusting coralline algae, and other creatures that make skeletons and shells of calcium carbonate need those same carbonate molecules that carbon dioxide steals.

Carbonate scarcity slows their growth, making them more fragile, and sometimes fatally deformed.  Carbonate concentrations in the upper few hundred feet (tens of meters) of the ocean have already declined about 10 percent compared to seawater just before steam-engine times.

http://blueocean.org.../acidification/ You can watch NRDC’s Acid Test –narrator Sigourney Weaver.

  10/11/12 CBS John Blackstone reported on oyster farmer Bill Dewey and how ocean acidification effect on larval oysters. Dewy spoke recently at a meeting in Monte ray California to Oceanographers.

Together with researchers and Google they have developed a simulation of acidification rising over the next 300 years. Watch this very important video at: http://www.google.co...n-acidification

How big is the problem- Dewey writes the following

THE Taylor family has farmed shellfish in Puget Sound for over a century. The business now faces a challenge to its very existence that we didn't even know about until five years ago: ocean acidification.
Seawater upwelling on Washington's coast at times is so corrosive that the shells of oyster larvae dissolve faster than they can form. Recent research shows that the shifting chemistry of seawater impacts far more than oysters. Increasing acidity can deform, stunt, disorient and even kill a number of species throughout the marine food web, from tiny plankton to scallops, crabs and fish. Understanding how these corrosive waters impact the ocean's ability to produce food is a pressing global security issue.
If we don't begin addressing ocean acidification promptly, the future of shellfish farming and the entire seafood industry is at stake.

On our current path, we are consigning our heirs to a world of increasing scarcity and conflict over ocean resources.

For Taylor,   acidification is not a future threat estimated by modeling or projections. It's here now. During 2007-2009, our oyster larvae production declined up to 80 percent. Other West Coast operations were also decimated. At the Whiskey Creek Hatchery in Netarts Bay, Ore., oyster larvae dissolved in their tanks. Investigation showed the Ph in some areas had droped from 8.2 to 7.4 having a huge effect on larvel oysters.

At Taylor, we feel like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, with a twist: After getting knocked down, we lived to sing. Having seen the impact of high-CO2 waters we feel some responsibility to speak out and make others aware of the serious and only recently understood consequences of continued high carbon emissions on the ocean.

In March 2012 Google news ran the following story- Ocean acidification may be worst in 300 million years: http://www.google.co...58b16f9bd6a.491

 acidification effects.JPG   26.99K   0 downloads

At E3 Wise we feel this issue adds another significant reason to worry about global climate change because the two are so interrealated that they can not be seperated.  That is why moving to clean sources of renewable energy is so important.  So what do you think?

[Shortpoet-GTD]

It's obvious the powers that be-koch brothers, sheldon addelson, the wal-mart heirs, exxon, shell, bp, etc.
don't care about the planet and are ignoring the pollution to our oceans.

Microscopic bits will survive and repopulate the waters of the planet, but it'll take hundreds if not thousands
of years-long after humans are gone.
But I believe the oceans will come back.
Will they have the same life forms like today? No. But the creatures of the deep will come back.

On a closer to home note-they're not even talking about climate change during the debates, so that
side of my brain (optimistic on previous statement) takes the pessimistic path and knows we're
done and the oceans are dying.

[E3 wise]

Not if we have anything to do about it sister.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

[E3 wise]

From Jeff Moore

    You know I realize it is easy to get down about the possible outcome of our upcoming election but I think we are being a little self righteous when we Americans project our Presidential Outcome on the long term outlook of the world at large.

  When I look at the energy/environment problem worldwide I am actually hopeful.  Yes we have issues here in the United States but look at the EU, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the Middle East, Asia and China- all are working on new solutions that focus on alternative energy production, reducing climate change, stepping away from fossil fuels and embracing real substantive goals now.  I literally could submit 3 to 4 articles a day detailing how other parts of the world are getting the message and switching to alternatives, reducing pollution and green house gasses and moving toward electric transportation, protecting biospheres and animals and reducing what the population uses and throws away.

  Giving them the tools to make this change is just as important, no matter who is President here in the United States.  Look I think Romney could really screw things up but my god guys we are 314 million in a world of 7 billion.  The EU and China have bigger economies than ours and lots more people and that’s just the short example, now China and India are two examples where things may or may not get worse environmentally as incomes increase, yet just because we have lagged behind may not mean they will also.
I guess my point is that when we talk about things like Carma or Ocean Acidification let remember that it’s a worldwide issue not just a United States issue.  I hope President Obama is reelected but if he is not that does not mean that the radical change that has occurred in towns, cities and states all over the United States will just stop, they won’t.

Many states are moving ahead no matter what the election outcome and you know they still will be the day after the election.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Ah.........how I love an optimist.
I try to stay on that side of things but it's not always possible.
Thanks for the pep talk.

[r. zimm]

I too am getting more optimistic. The U.S., Canada ad Europe started cleaning up in the 1970's so we are leading the world that way. Many other areas have just started to realize that their rapid economic growth has vast environmental implications and they at least are begining to move toward cleaning up and eco responsibility.