Ocean Acidification Arguments

The first step in Lester Browns “Plan B” strategy is that humans have to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by eighty percent by the year 2020. Second, is stabilizing the human population by not allowing the total number to exceed eight billion. Third, he believes that we need to eradicate poverty on a global scale. The last step in this plan is to restore the earth’s natural systems including aquifers, forests, grasslands, fisheries, etc. Research has shown that investing in the education of women have an important impact on population. It has been shown that if women are educated they marry later and have fewer children. These fewer children are also likely to repeat the cycle of their mother and continue have a reduction in the population.

This increase in oceanic inorganic carbon has offset the seawater carbonate chemistry by causing increasing concentrations of CO2 and bicarbonate, while causing decreasing concentrations of carbonate and pH levels (Dedmer 2013). Rost and colleagues (2008) express that emissions of fossil fuel have caused an immense increase in the levels of atmospheric CO2, which are then deposited into the surface water of oceans. This increase in carbonic acid is in turn decreasing the pH balance, which poses a threat to marine organisms.

Humans are changing the climate right now through deforestation and burning fossil fuels which is also creating ocean acidification. Kolbert writes in The Sixth Extinction that, humans are burning an excessive amount of fossil fuels through coal and natural gas into the air which added tons of carbon into the atmosphere. “SINCE the start of the industrial revolution, humans have burned through enough fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—to add some 365 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere” (Kolbert, p. 113). It is possible to say that through these burning fossil fuels, ocean acidification are occurring, too, because too much carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere and the ocean is absorbing the air into the ocean. Kolbert writes, “Thanks to all this extra CO2, the pH of the ocean’s surface waters has already dropped. Assuming that humans continue to burn fossil fuels, the oceans will continue to absorb carbon dioxide and will become increasingly acidified” (Kolbert, p. 113-114). In addition, our emissions of CO2 modify our atmosphere. Whereas, the gases from the atmosphere get absorbed by the ocean and gases dissolved in the ocean are released into the atmosphere killing most of our species. For example, many mollusks, corals, and single-celled creatures called foraminifera use ingredients in seawater to build their shells and other hard parts and these

The first major effect that Ocean Acidification has is the reduction of pH levels in the ocean. PH is very important in this case because it generally determines how acidic water is. The normal pH balance of water is 7. When Ocean Acidification occurs the pH levels in the ocean can dip below 7 therefore increasing the acidity of the water. Even though humans may be able to adapt to these kind of changes other species in the ocean cannot. Scientists estimate that by the end of this century Ocean Acidification can consequently cause the acidity of ocean water to increase by nearly 150%. That level of acidic water hasn't been seen or thrived in for almost 20 million years. Before major industries were created increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, the ocean relied on minerals carried into the ocean by rivers and lakes to balance out pH levels. Now that humans are producing too much Co2 for the atmosphere to handle the rivers and lakes can not carry enough minerals to keep pH in balance. If pH levels continue to fall major populations that call the ocean home will no longer exist. All it

“How acidification threatens ocean from the inside out: Carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic, imperiling the growth and reproduction of species from plankton to squid”, by Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina addresses the dangers of increasing acidity in the ocean caused by carbon dioxide. Hardt, a research scientist and writer, is the founder of Ocean Ink. Safina, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, is the founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute.

The main factors in this climate change are observed to be the increase in temperatures and the resulting acidification of the oceans. The previously mentioned changes and others in the report are readily observable, such as the uptake of anthropogenic carbon since 1750 that has led to the ocean becoming more acidic, with an average decrease in pH of 0.1 units and in some instances blatantly obvious, even to the average layperson. It is difficult to conclude what the rate of change in the future will be and the effects of observed ocean acidification on the marine biosphere.

I am a water loving science geek teenager, who has dreamed of being a marine biologist since I was a child. My love of water started when I was four years old participating in my first swim lesson at my local YMCA, which I now work at as a lifeguard and swim instructor. My water passion has continued throughout my life advancing through swim lesson to club and high school swimming. One of my proudest moments was swimming with kids twice my age and keeping up the whole swim lesson, which for me was more of a practice. After that, swim lesson extremely tired, but could not wait to go back.

When carbon dioxide enters the ocean, reacts with seawater, producing carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of water.  Increasing carbon dioxide emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels for energy, have made ocean acidification 30% increase compared to pre-industrial levels. This has caused the pH of surface waters of the oceans has fallen 0.1 units.  If carbon emissions continue to increase at the current

obal Warming is caused by the built up of carbon dioxide and other air pollutions. These absorb sunlight and solar radiation, trapping the heat which causes global temperatures to rise. Ocean Acidification is caused when the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the air causing it to be acidic. Scientist believe that the ocean has absorbed about half of the excess carbon dioxide in the past 200 years. This has caused a drop of 0.1 in ph. Since the pH scale is logarithmic, this change represents a thirty percent increase in acidity.

Ocean acidification is likely the most important environmental issue on the planet today, yet most of us don’t know about it. It’s time to change the conversation. Raise your voice and get this message heard! Everyone needs to know about ocean acidification and the threat to ocean life. Environmental organizations, governments, the media, and all of us need to make ocean acidification part of the environmental conversation. Up until now, we’ve been missing a huge part of the puzzle.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we exhale in our daily lives. Plants use carbon dioxide to create oxygen that all mammals use. However, carbon dioxide can also change the chemistry of the ocean, this is often referred to as ocean acidification. The excess carbon dissolves into oxygen in the water, producing a chemical called carbonic acid. This acid causes the ocean to become more acidic. In the eighteenth century, the pH was 8.07 which was slightly basic. Currently, the pH is around 8.01 this is about a twenty-five percent increase in acidity. (National geographic) While this slight change may not seem outrageous, it is causing multiple marine life struggles. The acid melts the shells of pteropods causing a low supply of food that would support larger fish.

Ocean Acidification is, excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. All of ocean acidification happens underwater; that is why it is unseeable and unfeelable. When coal, oil, and gas release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, it dissolves into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed approximately, 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Scientists once believed that, when the carbon dioxide (CO2) entered the atmosphere and dispersed into the ocean, it left less carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air to warm planet Earth. But, they quickly learned that the ocean's chemistry was changing.

involved in combustion processes. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has huge impacts on the solubility of carbon dioxide into earth’s oceans and as a result alters the ph levels of the seawater. The increase in ph levels due to the solubility of carbon dioxide can result in huge long-term effects on carbon based organisms and other marine life higher up in the food chain.

Ocean acidification is a harmful, but important process in the ocean, it occurs when carbon dioxide is released into the ocean causing a reduction in the hydrogen. The process of ocean acidification happens underwater, and creates carbonic acid, which increases acidity in sea water ecosystems. Ocean acidification is causing climate change in the oceans and almost all saltwater environments. According to the article Interactive Oceans, “Increasing levels of carbon dioxide, however, are outstripping the absorptive abilities of the oceans and are causing climate change.” This evidence shows that the increase of carbon which is happening from the process of ocean acidification is causing the climate of oceans and the atmosphere to change.

Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH levels of the Earth’s oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that goes on for a long period of time. This happens as the ocean and atmosphere interact. They interact in many ways, in exchanges of heat, salt, water and momentum. When wind blows over the ocean, energy is transferred from wind which then drives ocean currents. However, not only natural things are happening to acidify the ocean, we play a part in it too. Fossil fuels and deforestation. Climate Interpreter’s website report how are humans causing ocean acidification? (Last updated December 18th 2013) states that “Fossil fuel emissions are the gases that are spewed out of most cars, airplanes, power plants, and factories that are burning fossil fuels (coal, oil or gas). Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel consumption has risen exponentially to create many climate change-related issues, including ocean acidification. Deforestation is a two-fold issue. Burning down forests is similar to burning fossil fuels, it emits a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Forests are important because large expanses of plant life (even in the ocean) are known to be carbon sinks, taking in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. The CO2 being produced was in turn being absorbed. Deforestation not only creates more CO2, but it also destroys one of the very things that helps absorb it! Atmospheric CO2 is increasing so the ocean