What is the CO2
problem?
Ocean Acidification
·
The lowering of the ocean’s pH levels due to the
absorption of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
·
Excess amounts of CO2 are changing the chemistry
of the water and disrupting many forms of sea life
·
A more acidic ocean could wipe out species,
disrupt the food web and impact fishing, tourism and any other ocean related
activity
·
About
500 million use the coral reefs for daily food and income
·
The great barrier reef creates about $6.5
billion dollars each year from tourism alone
·
Since the time of the industrial revolution, the
ocean has dropped 0.1 units in the pH scale
·
Over the last 250 years the oceans have 530
billion tons of CO2 creating an 30% increase in ocean acidity
·
In perspective the oceans’ pH has been stable
for about 20 million years, and when mankind began burning fossil fuels it dramatically
increased
·
Researchers predict that the oceans’ acidity
will double by 2100
·
Will most recently affect the polar regions but
in the next 39 years it could start to show corrosiveness in the Gulf of Mexico
Effects on Sea Life
·
Is extremely harmful to marine creature with
seashells
·
Carbonate is the substance used to form shells
for many shellfish in the ocean
·
The more the pH drops the weaker the shells
become until they eventually break
·
It does not just apply to the shellfish in the
ocean, but the entire chain of the food chain
·
If the small animals die, then the bigger ones
do not have any food to eat
·
The loss of the coral reef would prevent some of
the absorption for hurricanes and storm surges
·
Corrosiveness of ocean acidification is similar
to osteoporosis in bones
·
Coral reefs provide homes to about 25% of all
marine life
·
Disappearing coral reefs are already impacting
the fishing and tourism industries
·
Disrupting the food chain especially at the most
fundamental and smallest levels
·
It is disintegrating the shells of pteropods
which are the basic food sources for Pacific juvenile salmon and krill
Natural resources defence
council. (2009, September 17). Retrieved from
http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/acidification/
Pmel:carbon program.
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What is Ocean
Acidification?
Moyer, R. P. (2009). Retrieved
from website: http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2009/11/
