Ocean Acidification          

Ocean Acidification is relatively newly recognised, happening now, and should be a real concern for all of us... as it has the potential to affect everyone... However, making sure the message gets through can be a real challenge. Speaking the same language, understanding the different requirements of the various interest groups and accepting the importance of working together is just the first step.

PHYTOPLANKTON are some of the most important life-forms on our planet, and are key for the survival of all marine Life, and land Life. They provide most of the OXYGEN we breathe (and are more valuable than any land-based plant life), and are responsible for the majority of photosynthesis on our planet, which has the added bonus of filtering out the majority of CO2 in our atmosphere. NEWS: The Ocean CO2 Eco-Cycle

Ocean greenery under global decline

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A century of phytoplankton decline suggests that ocean ecosystems are in peril.



Since 1950, phytoplankton in the world's oceans have declined by 40%.

"Over half of Earth's OXYGEN" is produced by phytoplankton... explains Professor David Thomas, from the school of ocean sciences at the University of Bangor. "If you take that away... you would lose the basis of life on Earth... There simply would NOT be enough OXYGEN to support LIFE." Professor Thomas said: "If you go back far enough in time... LIFE started in the plankton... so we owe it a remarkable debt... www.telegraph.co.uk

Link: To View Global phytoplankton via NASA's Aqua satellite:

About: http://EcoDelMar.org/phytoplankton

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‎..:: "Every day, 70 MILLION TONS of CO2 are released into Earth's atmosphere. ( remaining in the atmosphere for thousands of years )

..:: "Every day, 20 MILLION TONS of that CO2 are absorbed into the OCEANS, thereby increasing the overall ACIDITY of the OCEANS.

By 2100, Ocean acidity will increase another 150 to 200 hundred percent.

This is a dramatic change in the acidity of the oceans. And it has a serious impact on our ocean ecosystems; in particular, it has an impact on any species of calcifying organism that produces a calcium carbonate SHELL.

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http://www.ClimateWatch.NOAA.gov/video/2010/origin-impacts-ocean-acidification
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..:: "These are changes that are occurring far too fast for the oceans to correct naturally, said Dr Richard Feely with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

..:: "Fifty-five million years ago when we had an event like this (and that took over 10,000 years to occur), it took the oceans over 125,000 years to recover, just to get the chemistry back to normal," he told BBC News.

..:: "It took two to 10 million years for the organisms to re-evolve, to get back into a normal situation.

..:: "So what we do over the next 100 years will have implications for ocean ecosystems from tens of thousands to millions of years. That's the implication of what we're doing to the oceans right now."

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17088154 -
http://ecodelmar.org/phytoplankton -

it's now or never...

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Calcification may not be the physiological process that suffers most from ocean acidification; particularly as all species investigated displayed physiological trade-offs including increased metabolism, reduced health, and changes in behavioural responses in association with this calcification upregulation, which poses as great a threat to survival as an inability to calcify...
Ocean Acidification and CO2...


... When people do not understand Science... they simply can not Listen to the conversation... they become fearful... and functionally deaf...

... when people do not understand something, like the science of "Ocean Acidification"... fear tends to overshadow their ability to think peacefully and objectively... and a state of "fear" becomes the motivation to "separate" themselves (the ego) away from any association with whatever they "fear"... in a subconscious attempt to "survive" an imaginary saber tooth tiger attack... (classic "fight or flight" response)...

... in the case of "saber tooth global warming".... fear becomes "denial" because the ego survives the imaginary threat... so the "ego" grows stronger through "denial"... and the actual cause of "global warming" is allowed to continue as if the scientists were simply "crying wolf"... so now the "ego" takes great pride in thinking it is smarter than all the scientists on Earth... ergo "Pride go'eth before a fall... and Mass Grandiose Pride go'eth before the mass extinction....

... with the continued sounding of more alarms by scientists... more "egos" are strengthened, in blissful denial, and a new form of "group think" becomes the norm of those who do not understand the science...

... the sad tragedy is that "living in denial" is a common method used to escape any personal (ego) responsibility... and it always involves "blaming" someone else...

... when the global warming "deniers" finally wake up and smell the dead Ocean... they will convert their "denial" of "global warming" into denial of their responsibility ... and look for someone ELSE to nail to a cross for their own "sins"... continuing to project the blame and responsibility "outside" of it's source...

... unfortunately, this time, we are facing extinction... and the fear in the minds of the self righteous religious elitist "voters"... who unconsciously subscribe to a dogmatic "denial" version of "group think".... are now a real and dangerous threat to the survival of all life on Earth... because that massive "group think" population of "voters"... will continue to delay decisive action to deploy alternative energy until it is too late...

... Anyone with a Truly Loving Heart... (as the "religious" do claim the "ownership" of)... would at the very LEAST... be willing to Listen in a conversation... and ask themselves why they dogmatically reject 98% of the best SCIENTISTS on Earth... instead of continuing to bury their heads in denial... and expecting God to fix our Eco-system that was broken during the runaway industrial revolution... leading to runaway climate change... on the only known planet in the entire Universe with LIFE...

... Ironically, what is needed, is a more Spiritual way of Loving Nature... truly caring for our Home Planet... the only one in the universe known to sustain Life...

... If anyone is poisoning and abusing Mother Nature' Life... for money... that is truly blasphemous... Where are the "good shepherds" they claim to be.... have they not become the heartless, deaf, blind, demons, they feared...

http://EcoDelMar.org/Ten_​Things ... you can do for the Oceans.... the Only Known Living Oceans in the entire universe.... No blue... No Green...

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http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/ocean-acidification.html





The Royal Society of London published a report Ocean acidification in 2005, which summarized the salient points:

1. Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves in the ocean making it more acidic.

2. This is inevitable with high carbon dioxide, no fancy models are involved.

3. The oceans have already become 30% more acidic than before fossil fuel burning started.

4. Acidification will kill corals, and destroy other marine life.

5. There has been no period like this in the past 20 million years.

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Global Warming Is Reducing Ocean Life....

While Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

"Phytoplankton grow faster in a cool ocean and slower in a warm one," said Siegel. "The scary part is that the oceans are warming now ---- caused by our emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide."

These microscopic plants are predicted to grow even slower in the warmer oceans of the future. This in turn will reduce the food available to fish and other organisms, including marine birds and mammals, which are supported by the ocean's food chain. Phytoplankton are responsible for about the same amount of photosynthesis each year as all the plants on land combined.

Another disturbing result of reduced phytoplankton is that our atmosphere depends on the consumption of atmospheric carbon dioxide by these plants. Reduced phytoplankton means less carbon dioxide is taken up by the ocean, which could speed global warming, contributing to a vicious cycle of increased warming.

"Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere play a big part in global warming," said lead author Michael Behrenfeld of Oregon State University. "This study shows that as the climate warms, phytoplankton growth rates go down and along with them the amount of carbon dioxide these ocean plants consume. That allows carbon dioxide to accumulate more rapidly in the atmosphere, which would produce more warming."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061207084052.htm

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Biodiversity in the Balance

Paleontologists and geologists are looking to the ancient past for clues about whether global warming will result in mass extinctions. What they’re finding is not encouraging, science writer Carl Zimmer says.

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Recent discovery of surprisingly acidic waters along the Pacific Coast and in Puget Sound.

As oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from cars, factories and tree cutting, the pH of seawater decreases, making the water more acidic. That process also binds up calcium carbonate ions, which are so widely used to build shells and skeletons that some call them the “soil of the marine world.” And changes in pH may change the nutrients available to phytoplankton, altering the nutritional quality of that basic marine food and favoring some types of algae.

So how will different creatures fare in increasingly acidic seas?



 In lab experiments around the world, results have ranged from alarming to head-scratching:
 

• Clownfish larvae lost their sense of smell, their ability to find suitable reef habitat and to distinguish their parents from other fish. They also started following potentially dangerous scents they would otherwise avoid.
• Abalone and sea urchins from Australia's Sydney Harbor either died or grew abnormally.
• Antarctic krill embryos, a cornerstone species in the marine food chain, failed to hatch.
• Brittle stars were able to increase their metabolism and rate at which they built skeletal structures, but that coping strategy was undone by muscle wastage in their arms.
• Jumbo squid became lethargic and sluggish as their ability to deliver oxygen to blood cells was affected.
• Pteropods—marine snails also known as “sea butterflies” that make up as much as 60 percent of the diet of some juvenile Alaskan salmon—dissolved as their tiny winged feet kept swimming.

But it's not clear whether previous lab results will hold true for Pacific Northwest creatures. Some have already been exposed to pockets of unusually corrosive water, such as that found in Hood Canal. No one knows whether that means they're better adapted or already so stressed that they're likely to fare worse.


And even closely related species can respond differently to ocean acidification. In one experiment, the larvae of edible sea urchins died in greater numbers while green sea urchins thrived.


In another experiment that exposed 18 species of marine calcifiers to water rich in carbon dioxide, 10 had trouble building shells as efficiently. Some of those protective structures and skeletons started dissolving. Yet seven species—including a crab, shrimp, lobster, calcifying algae, temperate urchin, and a limpet—produced shells more rapidly. Perversely, it was these 7 cases that grabbed the headlines, which missed the larger point. As the study's author later asked: “If someone removed 10 of every 18 bricks from your house, is that still a house in which you would want to live?”


In Seattle, McElhany used to spend his research time on salmon populations and recovery plans. He shifted to ocean acidification after realizing that all the habitat restoration projects in the world may become band-aid solutions if the fundamental chemistry of the ocean changes.


“It seemed like a big enough problem that could shuffle the entire ecosystem,” he said.


Among the marine creatures that the Seattle researchers plan to study at the NOAA lab are krill and copepods, two forms of crustaceous plankton...


http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2011/06/06/the-puget-sound-shuffle

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At Bonn talks, UN climate change chief urges progress towards low-emissions future

www.un.org

Against the backdrop of new warnings about the rise in greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, the top United Nations climate change official today called on governments to make progress in the fight against global warming, building on commitments made last year.

‎..:: “The clean and renewable energy revolution has already begun -- the challenge is to complete it in time,” she stated... More than 3,000 participants from 183 countries are attending the Bonn talks in preparation for the UN climate conference to be held in Durban, South Africa, starting on 28 November.

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http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38624&Cr=climate+change&Cr1





Society's Continued Unawareness Regarding the "Other CO2 Problem"

Ocean acidification, while only recently recognized, fails to be appreciated as an actual threat... making it nearly impossible for anyone outside the small group of scientists who study the phenomenon to comprehend or care about its ramifications.141


Without an international instrument outlining the basics of ocean acidification and the need to neutralize its devastating effects... attempts to combat ocean acidification will be fruitless.142


A continued lack of concern will only frustrate the prospects of a global solution by fostering societal ignorance of acidification's colossal consequences.143


First and foremost, society must be educated on the fact that climate change has not one, but two facets: global warming and ocean acidification.144


Ignoring ocean acidification exacerbates the effects of climate change, particularly because those aware of the issue have yet to successfully incorporate ocean acidification into the environmental protection lexicon.145


http://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/transnat/documents/Lamirande_final.pdf




The "Nautilus" Lived in the Oceans for 500 MILLION YEARS.. until now...

According to NOAA... Ocean Acidification is now unstoppable... and no one knows the extent Ocean Acidification will effect the phytoplankton ... and if we do loose the phytoplankton ... can we discover an alternative oxygen source for earth soon enough...

When CO2 concentrations become too high, trees and plants will stop functioning: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=106861 ... and if forests will fail... crops will fail... the methane hydrates will release additional green house gas further accelerating Ocean Acidification...

... and yet about half of the American "voters" say none of this is even "real!"... and about half of those will tell you that "God is doing this to punish the bad people"... OMG... that "group think" has mesmerized the masses for way too long... it's wake up time! :-) .... and they actually "think" they are the "objective" thinkers!... while spouting that "nobody needs to be concerned about the environment, because that's God's job!"... OMG... whatever happened to actually being "Good Stewards"... please see: http://EcoDelMar.org/sally

... well i say... forgive them... and pray for them... for those who are afraid to listen to Nature... including their own Heart... do not understand what they do... nor the "hell" on this beautiful Earth they blindly contribute to... so pray for them...

... and after you politely say farewell to them... go join... or contribute to any organization that respects Mother Nature above profits... http://Greenpeace.org ... or any non-profit environmental group of your choice...

Sea Shells...

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Won't See Shells...

Acid Ocean Will Dissolve
Sea Creatures' Shells
Researchers uncover another
devastating impact of the industrial civilization age...

By 2018 the Arctic Ocean will be so corrosive, spelling disaster for the food chain as tiny crustaceans begin to die off... reports the Telegraph. "We knew the seas were getting more acidic and this would disrupt shellfish ability to grow shells. Now we realize the situation is much worse," said lead scientist Prof. Jean-Pierre Gattuso. The world's seas are turning acidic as carbon dioxide from industrial pollution converted to carbonic acid in all of Earth's Oceans... The situation is more dire than our computer models had predicted...

The Oceans gave us everything... what did we give back...








You are the sound of the drums...
the Universe hears your Heartbeat... EcoDelMar.org/drums

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The oceans are absorbing One Million TONS of CO2 PER HOUR from the atmosphere ....

Ocean Acidification combined with worldwide industrial toxic dumping is killing the only Living Oceans in the known universe....

Without Healthy Living Oceans and Earth's Symbiotic Environment... this planet will not have a Life supporting atmosphere...

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Just talk to any of your friends who have ever maintained a salt water aquarium about how delicate the pH balance is...


Consider the following scenario, and tell me if i am wrong about this...

1) we have no way to stop runaway Ocean Acidification...

2) we will probably continue burning fossil fuels worldwide for about 50 more years...

3) all the kings horses and all the kings scuba divers can not prevent the Oceans from becoming so acidic it will dissolve the coral reefs and impair all marine life, including the phytoplankton ....

4) when that happens... we could loose up to 70% of Earth's oxygen supply...

5) with more CO2 in the atmosphere, even the trees, plants and crops will no longer function...

6) when the methane hydrates melt... and they already are... mega tons of flammable biomass will burn out of control worldwide... releasing additional greenhouse gas, increasing the positive feedback loop....

7) forests will become deserts... further reducing oxygen and increasing CO2...

8) Earth's currently Livable atmosphere will be lost for thousands of years... No blue, No green...

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http://EcoDelMar.org/ocean_acidification


The entire Ocean's ecosystem is affected... from the phytoplankton to the whales.... According to researchers, the phenomenon is going to get much worse and the disappearance of several species will disrupt ecosystems. phytoplankton absorbs carbon dioxide and produces over half the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere... http://www.goodplanet.info/Contenu/Focus/Ocean-acidification/%28language%29/eng-GB



Most of us reading this web page are already aware of the problems with climate change and Ocean acidification... and we understand the need to conserve energy and reduce CO2 emissions...

Yet there is still a HUGE block of American "voters" who have accepted the propaganda spewed by big oil/coal convincing them that 'climate change' is not even real...

Unfortunately there is another HUGE block of voters among the religious conservatives who are welcoming the 'end of times' and they see no need to 'save the environment' at all...

Big oil/coal may have more money...
yet, "we the people" have more votes....

United we stand... and we will fall... if we become divided into turf battles...



Our "mass consumption" culture seems to relish intentionally wasteful behaviors... as if eating too many hamburgers in x amount of time makes someone a super hero to be televised... yet protecting our precious Oceans is not of much public interest...


Recently the world-wide beach clean-up's and demonstrations like "hands-across-the sands" are gaining public appeal... and the core values of our "mass consumption" society is finally recognized as unsustainable... thanks in a great part to web videos like: http://TheStoryOfStuff.com


Leandro Blanco made some wonderful web videos for Ocean conservation.... and i think it's a great way to "counter" Madison Avenue's cultural "mass consumption" indoctrination of the totally gullible American consumers...


One the key factor seems to be balancing the amount of beauty of Nature with the educational content that will lead to an actual shift in awareness towards protecting Nature... and an intrinsic motivation to share the content with others...


With access to blogs and youtubes, etc, we can all contribute to the educational content of the web and share our inspirations towards a healthy environment... i am trying to do this at: http://EcoDelMar.org/arkive

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..:: " Dissolved methane makes sea water more acidic, and this could add to the growing problem of ocean acidification, which has so far largely been due to dissolved CO2. Scientists are concerned that more acid oceans could threaten plankton... If the methane in the hydrate deposits did ever make it into the atmosphere, the effects would be profound...

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=516

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..:: " More than 250 plumes of gas bubbles have been discovered emanating from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin, in a depth range of 150–400 m, at and above the present upper limit of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ).

Some of the plumes extend upward to within 50 m of the sea surface. The gas is predominantly methane. Warming of the northward-flowing West Spitsbergen current by 1°C over the last thirty years is likely to have increased the release of methane from the seabed by reducing the extent of the GHSZ, causing the liberation of methane from decomposing hydrate.

If this process becomes widespread along Arctic continental margins, TENS of TERA-GRAMS of methane PER YEAR could be released into the Oceans...
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1 Teragrams ~ 1.1 Million Tons
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http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2009GL039191.shtml

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Albeit too late, we are recognizing the true value of 'respecting' Nature... and it even comes down to the way each individual values their human ego... vs nature...

Indigenous people had a respect for Nature that is almost beyond our ability to understand it today...

seeing all living creatures as Spiritual representatives of the "great waver"... whatever name you might imagine... semantics don't matter, respect does...

Our over stimulated 'ego' has become the theme for our life-style... and it has become addicted to anything it wants... and it always wants more... never achieving real Peace...

After all, the best things in Life... are not things...


http://EcoDelMar.org/indigenous

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Whatever pathway you choose, to awaken inner consciousness, if it works for you... it works...

Be it art, music, poetry, philosophy, prayer, meditation, yoga, or dancing in drum circles... it is your personal responsibility to enjoy enlightening yourself...

When you respect Nature... you want to know your environment... and you will and not pollute it...

Big oil/coal is spending big bucks to keep their cash cow alive.... and we know it's a dinosaur....

please see: http://EcoDelMar.org/GoGreen/

And suggest to your politicians... to donate the money they took from big oil... to help restore the GULF... they need to hear from the "voters" who know the truth... otherwise they will get away with more of the same.... again and again...

please see: http://EcoDelMar.org/MBA_Lemmings/

Nobody cares 'which' Environmental / Ocean / Dolphin / Whale / 501-c-3 non-profit organization you like best... the point is to support them... and not to throw stones at everyone else.... enlighten yourself...

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Global Geo-Engineering Ocean Experiments have failed to solve Climate Change and Ocean Acidification... phytoplankton has reduced by 40%... and still we carelessly drive the planet along the highway known as "Business As Usual"...

It has become painfully obvious that we can not depend on a government dominated by a slick OIL industry to actually protect the ONLY known Living Oceans in the entire Universe...

Greenpeace has a plan to save the Oceans already prepared in a report titled "Roadmap to Recovery, a Global Network of Marine Reserves."

Outlining in detail the rationale for complete protection of FORTY PERCENT of the world's Oceans in areas essential to prevent total Ocean collapse.

please see: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/marine-reserves/roadmap-to-recovery


..:: "Perhaps the most startling news story of this year passed almost unnoticed by the general public... Ocean plankton (phytoplankton ) that live in the oceans and carry out a job you and I depend on to stay alive... produce over HALF the world's OXYGEN, and take up more CO2 than trees. This year, one of the world's most distinguished scientific journals, "Nature", revealed that 40 per cent of the phytoplankton have been killed by climate change of the OCEANS since 1950... http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-there-wont-be-a-bailout-for-the-earth-2143876.html


No Blue... No Green... if we loose the phytoplankton ... we all loose... please see: http://EcoDelMar.org/phytoplankton / ... the most important species of them all... is the least respected... what you do to the least of these...

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The Societal Challenge of Ocean Acidification

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://bristol.academia.edu/DanielaSchmidt/Papers/376335/The_Societal_challenge_of_ocean_acidification

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Louie Psihoyos, photo-journalist of "The Cove"... and Miyoko Sakashita ... Oceans Director and Senior Attorney, for the Center of Biological Diversity... discuss the impacts of Ocean Acidification on Earth...

Miyoko Sakashita is on a mission for the Earth's imperiled marine life... and to protect Earth's ECO-Systems from the impending threats of Ocean Acidification...


"quote from: Jon Harrington :: "Corporate America must change... The cost to the environment and our survival is too great to allow the lobbyists in Washington to "run" our government. Over the past 18 months the petroleum industry has spent... $1,800.00 per day, per congressman, in lobbying expenses. If renewable energy had that kind of money for influence, imagine where we would be...

It was great to have Miyoko on the program this week, as the Center of Biological Diversity is at the forefront of changing policy in Washington.


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LINK to full interview:
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http://earthup.podbean.com/2010/11/18/louie-psihoyos-miyoko-sakashita-discuss-ocean-acidification/



Sylvia Earle.... No Blue, No Green.... (seriously)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://EcoDelMar.org/sylvia/

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:: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution : www.whoi.edu:

Q: Will capping atmospheric CO2 at 350 or 400 ppm stop OA?...

A: Atmospheric CO2 is already at 390 ppm and is increasing at about 2 ppm per year. Without dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions, atmospheric CO2 will continue to rise, and most emission forecasts for the near future indicate a likely increase (rather than decrease) in atmospheric CO2 growth rate. The first step in addressing ocean acidification, therefore, is to stabilize and eventually reduce CO2 emissions. Atmospheric CO2 almost certainly will peak well above 400 ppm, because we will not stop increasing emissions in the next 5 years. The impacts on marine life at the peak CO2 level may be substantial. In the long run, it may be possible to reduce atmospheric CO2 through natural and artificial uptake mechanisms. The chemistry of seawater is reversible, and returning to 350-400 ppm would return pH and carbonate saturation levels to approximately their current conditions. However, some research has suggested that even current-day conditions may be deleterious for some organisms, and it is even less clear if future biological impacts due to peak CO2 will be reversible. Even if we stabilized CO2 emissions, atmospheric fossil fuel CO2 will continue to penetrate into the deep ocean for the next several centuries...


:: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution : www.whoi.edu:

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http://www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id=58683&pt=2&p=69346




Q: Isn't it better that we sacrifice the oceans and let them keep on taking up CO2 and buffering climate? ...


A: Ocean acidification and climate change are two sides of the same coin. Both are direct consequences of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and cannot be separated from each other. The present uptake of about one quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions by the ocean indeed serves as a buffer against rising atmospheric CO2, and so this "service" could be considered to diminish, but not prevent, climate change. In the long term, on time scales of tens of thousands of years, the majority of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (80-90% will end up in the ocean. This, however, will not protect the climate system from global warming during the intervening period. Thus, sacrificing the ocean for the sake of the atmosphere is not entirely possible. It is also important to point out that impacts on the oceans, particularly "sacrificing" them, will have profound effects on the functioning of Earth's ecosystems...


:: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution : www.whoi.edu:

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http://www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id=58683&pt=2&p=69346





Q: Is it too late to do anything?...


A: It is within our technical and economic means to modify our energy and transportation systems and land-use practices to largely eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from our economies by mid-century. It is thought that the cost of doing this -- perhaps 2% of the worldwide economic production -- would be small, yet at present it has proven difficult for societies to decide to undertake this conversion. -- K. Caldeira


:: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution : www.whoi.edu:

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http://www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id=58683&pt=2&p=69346




Q: If ocean acidification is so potentially serious why isn't it included in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) climate mitigation negotiations?...



A: Although scientists have known for decades that ocean acidification would occur as CO2 increased in the atmosphere, the consequences to marine life were not realized until about 10 years ago. At that time, biologists discovered that ocean acidification affected the ability of many marine organisms to form their shells or skeletons. Since then, many more effects of ocean acidification have been found to influence a wide array of organisms and marine processes. Because the scientific process relies on formal research protocols, peer-review, and publishing, it takes some time for a new finding to be verified and accepted by the scientific community. However, sufficient evidence about ocean acidification existed by 2007 that the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change (2007) stated in the Summary for Policy Makers, "The progressive acidification of the oceans due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to have negative impacts on marine shell-forming organisms (e.g. corals) and their dependent species." Ocean acidification and its effects have now been documented to the point that they are widely accepted by the scientific community and it will be seriously addressed by the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. In fact, ocean acidification was a major topic of discussion at side events such as Oceans Day at the December 2009 COP15 climate change negotiations in Copenhagen even though specific considerations about oceans had little or no mention in the text of the proposed agreement. -- J. Kleypas, C. Turley


:: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution : www.whoi.edu:

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http://www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id=58683&pt=2&p=69346

Acidifying the ocean is particularly detrimental to Living...

... organisms that secrete shell material made of CaCO3, such as coral reefs and a type of phytoplankton called coccolithophorids [Kleypas et al., 1999]. The ocean pH change will persist for thousands of years. Because the fossil fuel CO2 rise is faster than natural CO2 increases in the past, the ocean will be acidified to a much greater extent than has occurred naturally in at least the past 800,000 years [Caldeira and Wicket, 2003].

http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/07/the-acid-ocean-the-other-problem-with-cosub2sub-emission/

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http://EcoDelMar.org/phytoplankton

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Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) :: Global List of Carbon Footprints:

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* US - 2,530 million
* China - 2,430 million
* Russia - 600 million
* India - 529 million
* Japan - 363 million
* Germany - 323 million
* Australia - 205 million
* South Africa - 201 million
* UK - 192 million
* South Korea - 168 million

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phytoplankton :: Produce 70% of the Oxygen on Earth...

Building Block #1 in the Food Chain and Oxygen Cycle for Life on Earth...

phytoplankton has reduced by 40% since 1950...

"Over half of the world's OXYGEN is produced by these phytoplankton ," explained Professor David Thomas, from the school of ocean sciences at the University of Bangor. "If you took that away you would lose the basis of life on the globe. There simply wouldn't be enough oxygen to support life." Professor Thomas said: "If you go back far enough in time, life started in the plankton, so we owe it a remarkable debt." telegraph.co.uk View Global phytoplankton via NASA's Aqua satellite

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Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 10:15 PM

Subject: Ocean acidification phytoplankton

The Societal challenge of ocean acidification

http://bristol.academia.edu/DanielaSchmidt/Papers/376335/The_Societal_challenge_of_ocean_acidification

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Based on current knowledge of marine impacts as discussed above,
to ensure no large-scale risk to marine organisms and ecosystems,
we strongly suggest taking the precautionary principle of a threshold of 450 ppm CO2.

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June 2011: 393.69 parts per million (ppm)

July 2010: 390.09
July 2009: 387.74
July 2008: 386.38
July 2007: 384.45
July 2006: 382.15
July 2005: 380.60
July 2004: 377.48
July 2003: 376.65
July 2002: 373.91
July 2001: 371.51

July 2000: 369.69
July 1990: 354.67
July 1980: 339.34
July 1970: 326.35
July 1960: 318.18

July 1958: 315.86

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Data:
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NOAA | http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/data/mlo.html

Scripps | http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/data/mlo.html
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..:: " Currently the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere dips to 19% over impacted areas, and it is down to 12 to 17% over the major cities.

..:: " At these levels it is difficult for people to get sufficient oxygen to maintain bodily health: it takes a proper intake of oxygen to keep body cells and organs, and the entire immune system, functioning at full efficiency.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/13/carbonemissions.climatechange

..:: " Around 10,000 years ago, the planet's forest cover was at least twice what it is today, which means that forests are now emitting only half the amount of oxygen.

..:: " Desertification and deforestation are rapidly accelerating this long-term loss of oxygen sources.

..:: " The story at sea is much the same. Nasa reports that in the north Pacific ocean oxygen-producing phytoplankton concentrations are 40% lower today...

http://EcoDelMar.org/phytoplankton

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. . . and to answer the popular question about 'optimism vs pessimism'... i like the way Paul Hawken says it: ..::"If you actually look at the science about what is happening on Earth and your aren't pessimistic... you don't understand the data... But if you meet the people who are working to restore this Earth and the lives of the poor... and you aren't optimistic... you haven't got a pulse"... http://EcoDelMar.org/paul

The health and intrinsic beauty in Nature is our Guide... in the smallest of the leaves... a dragonfly... a seagull... the dolphins and whales... any one of them will guide any Soul to the Light... out of the materialistic 'real world', that will finally be seen as the illusion it was... Life is breathing... the question is... will we awaken before we have lost every whale and dolphin in the Oceans... How can we humans come to understand that we are all part of the most amazing family of beings to ever exist in all of time... we are miraculous Life forms made from trillion year old star dust... and still we need to practice "gratitude" every day... to manifest the Humility we need to protect the only known human Life forms in the entire universe from the ego's quest to dominate the very Nature that Gracefully creates Life every moment and beats in every Heart since the beginning of time...

Today we are well on our way to loosing the Coral Reefs on Earth caused by Ocean Acidification: http://EcoDelMar.org/coral ... and the Climate Change unfolding today is clearly anthropogenic... the big question is... can we operate our industrial revolution 'Sustainably'... and the question before that is... can we recognize that our 'life-style' is driving up the CO2 that is causing Ocean Acidification... potentially harming the health of phyto-plankton... Earth's #1 source of Oxygen for us to breathe in the air.

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..:: " A recent study by Dalhousie University oceanographer Boris Worm and his team found that phytoplankton populations in the ocean are declining at an alarming rate because of human activity and climate change.

..:: " Why should we care?

..:: " They remove CO2 from our AIR and produce more than half the OXYGEN we breathe.

..:: " The report, published in the July 29 edition of Nature, states that PHYTO - PLANKTON have already declined by about 40 per cent since 1950.

..:: " We can't BREATHE without them...

..:: " While governments stall and deniers spread confusion, it gets more and more difficult to achieve the kind of emissions reductions that scientists say are necessary to prevent the Earth from reaching cataclysmic.

..:: " It was once possible... and "MAY" still be...

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2010/08/declining-phytoplankton-another-sign-of-climate-catastrophe/

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..: Large decreases in atmospheric oxygen are being detected :: Decrease in atmospheric O2 has been detected in stations around the world for the past decade, a consistent downward trend that has accelerated in recent years:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/O2DroppingFasterThanCO2Rising.php

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Breathing Earth: Interactive world map displaying carbon dioxide emission levels of every country in the world as well as their birth and death rates- all in real time. Click over country for info.

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All happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy ... Dalai Lama

http://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama

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