Carbon-dioxide emissions causing world's oceans to become more acidic, threatening marine life

Email this article to a friend

Printable Version

Articles Related to This Article: • Bush Administration announces effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through "wishful thinking" (satire) • Growth of global carbon dioxide emissions "spiraling out of control," report finds • India claims its emissions cause no harm to world's atmosphere Support NaturalNews advertisers - Advertise with NaturalNews Help support NaturalNews with health books and educational programs from Truth Publishing: • Swine Flu Advanced Preparedness • 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health • Raw In Ten Minutes (recipes) • How to Halt Diabetes in 25 Days ... and much more.

(NaturalNews) Government as well as independent scientists are becoming concerned about the rising acidity of the world's oceans caused by the increasing release of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

Six House members received a two-hour briefing on the subject in May, and Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., commented, "It's just been an absolute time bomb that's gone off both in the scientific community and ultimately, in our public policymaking. It's another example of when you put gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, you have these results none of us would have predicted."

The trend used to be viewed as positive, because it alleviated the effects of global warming. But a press release from the National Center for Atmospheric Research stated that CO2 emissions are "dramatically altering ocean chemistry and threatening corals and other marine organisms that secrete skeletal structures." Although the phenomenon is not as debatable as global warming, there are still skeptics.

Hugo Loaiciga, a geography professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, acknowledged that certain regions of the ocean may become more acidic over time, but added that "on a global scale and over the time scales considered [hundreds of years], there would not be accentuated changes in either seawater salinity or acidity from the rising concentration of atmospheric CO2." Loaciga published a paper in the May edition of the American Geophysical Union's journal that suggested enough carbonate material would help restore equilibrium in the ocean, counteracting its acidity.

Numerous scientists doubt Loaiciga's report, since it would take thousands of years for carbonate material to reach the ocean from land. One scientist said, "The paper by Loaiciga ignores decades of scholarship, presents inappropriate calculations and draws erroneous conclusions that simply do not apply to (the) real ocean."

###

Get articles like this delivered to you FREE in our popular email newsletter

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • Bush Administration announces effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through "wishful thinking" (satire) • Growth of global carbon dioxide emissions "spiraling out of control," report finds • India claims its emissions cause no harm to world's atmosphere	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/019559_emissions_oceans_marine_life.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/019559_emissions_oceans_marine_life.html">Carbon-dioxide emissions causing world's oceans to become more acidic, threatening marine life</a>