Physics Today Report Indicates Ocean Acidification Increasing

A report published in the most recent issue of Physics Today (August, p. 20), discloses intense concern about the rising acidification of the oceans. The related article highlights the fact that "the oceans aren't vast enough to absorb growing amounts of carbon dioxide without ill effects to marine life and to the 1 billion people who make their living on the sea."

Other related events that have been documented include: longer heat waves, drought, rising sea levels and more intense storms.  Less well known to many is the acidification of the oceans which is projected to continue as the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increases. Since 2012 the evidence has been reinforced that not only is the acidity of Earth's oceans the greatest since the dawn of the Industrial revolution, but in the past 300 million years.  Indeed, according to the latest research our oceans may be acidifying faster than at any point during the last 300 million years due to industrial emissions, endangering marine life from oysters and reefs to sea-going salmon. And we won't even mention the phytoplankton which generate so much of the planet's oxygen,

As I noted in previous blog posts, the seas absorb CO2 from the atmosphere forming carbonic acid. The particular chemical reaction is:

H2O + CO2 -> H2 CO3

The lower the pH level in the seas ('7' is neutral pH), the more acidic they are. This is also worrisome because mass extinctions of marine creatures in the past have been linked to instances of ocean acidification. Thus the current incremental change could also threaten important species. This according to Baerbel Hoenisch, the paleoceanographer at Columbia, when her paper first appeared in Science two years ago.

Now, according to Ove Hoegh - Guldberg of the University of Queensland, it appears that marine organisms that require carbonate ions to build their shells won't have time to adapt to the changing pH. According to Hoegh - Guldberg:

"We're taking life outside the conditions it actually evolved for."

Since the Industrial Revolution the acidity of the oceans has jumped 25 % from a pH of 8.2 to 8,.1 according to the U.S> Global Change Research Program;s 2014 National Climate Change assessment. If current trends continue unchecked the acidity will increase 100-150 percent above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, according to Carol Turley of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK, cited in the article.

The article also notes that tropical corals are especially vulnerable to the combination of acidification and warming of the oceans, noting:

"Clues to what coral reefs may look like in 2100 with unchecked CO2 emissions are available today near naturally occurring CO2 vents off Papua, New Guinea. Fewer and less diverse communities of corals exist just adjacent to those vents compared to communities just a few meters away."


Solutions?

Although reducing the carbon load in the atmosphere from anthropogenic processes is the only sure way to alleviate the problem, there are some researchers exploring atmospheric geo-engineering solutions. These would have as their prime objective increasing the pH level of the seas. The technique would involve spraying aerosols  over the ocean surface but this would do nothing to address acidification.

As the article observes:

"The scale of effort required to buffer the ocean's acidity is mind boggling. The annual mass of the compounds is about an order of magnitude more than the 2 gigatons of carbon absorbed by the oceans each year."

It seems that in terms of the oceans turning  to carbonic acid, we may have passed the point of new return - possibly altering all ocean ecology permanently. A point made by an ocean specialist on Bill Maher's Real Time two months ago who forecast nearly all fish dying, giving way to billions and billions of.....Jellyfish.

A Glimpse of What Our Future, Overpopulated World WIll Look Like

Yesterday evening, my niece Heidi - an RN in Arizona-  sent me a link to a video that must be seen to be believed. It shows 'rush hour in Dhaka at the time of Ramadan'  (2 1/2 months ago) but could equally be a preview of what our world's largest cities will look like - in NORMAL  periods- in 40 years when the population tops 10 billion. You can see the video here:

http://safeshare.tv/w/vwncRciSFb

Note especially the traffic congestion, the piling into buses, literally crawling over one another to secure whatever small space available. Note also the congestion in the streets and the mass motion to get to destinations.  Again, this could very well be the normal scene in the planet's largest cities including, Dhaka, Mumbai, Jakarta, Tokyo, Lagos, Beijing, and even London and New York.

Richard Attenborough, in his BBC documentary entitled: 'How Many People Can Earth Hold?',  pulls no punches in his assessments. He observes that every current major societal, environmental problem- from clogged highways, to overflowing hospital ERs to crowded schools, as well as scarcity of commodities (reflected in their much increased prices) to fouling of our water and atmosphere, can be laid at the feet of too many people on this planet - each needing food, air, water and energy from the time it's born.

Of all the resources, the most critical is water because no one can live without it for very long. Even now, 1 billion people live in water-stressed conditions, meaning that renewable water supplies drop below 1,700 cubic meters per capita. One notable ‘State of the World’ report (2000, pp. 46-47), warned that the ever increasing water deficits will likely spark “water wars” by 2025. The situation is likely to be exacerbated by the fracking mania which is rendering millions of cubic feet of water useless for humans after it's been used for releasing natural gas and oil from underground deposits.

Attenborough reinforces this observation by noting the water intensity of the various beverages, foods we produce. For example, merely to produce one cup of coffee requires the consumption of 120 liters of water. To get a single can of beer requires 150 liters, and to obtain that 'Big Mac' or quarter pounder takes some 8,000 liters! All of this is water that could be put to better use, if changes were made in our highly consumptive diets.


Can this world be averted? This is an especially apt question given the most recent UN Climate Report noting that it is a near certainty that humans are the primary causative agents for global warming. It is even of more pressing concern, giving the enhanced effect of CO2 absorption by the oceans - converting them into carbonic acid (H2 CO3).  This is even now dramatically affecting the viability of sea life, including corals, crustaceans and varieties of fish.

What steps can be taken?

Attenborough brings up the "one child only" law in China. While people may seethe at such a law, it enabled China to achieve economic superpower status within a generation and now compete directly with the U.S. As Attenborough notes, if that law hadn't been enacted China would now have 400 million additional people and still be at the mercy of famine from too few grains, foods or ability to import them.

The U.S. doesn't need such draconian methods, only minor changes for example in its tax code. Taking away the child tax credit, or having a sliding scale of increased taxes when people have more children, while giving credits when they adopt more kids in need. The problem is, the U.S. is already overpopulated in terms of the resources it can deliver for 315 million people.

We also need to target and fight against the spurious arguments that we need to have more people in order to pay for what the Right called "entitlements". No we do not, we need more judicious use of our existing economic resources and their allocation. A good start would be to cut the Pentagon budget by 50% and use that money to shore up Social Security and Medicare. The only reason these huge budgets remain is because certain communities - like Colorado Springs- have become dependent on the federal tax teat at the expense of other communities (the majority) which lack military bases.

There is still time to alter the course toward a nightmare world, but it isn't infinite. If we don't begin to act now, we will pay dearly later - all of us - even if we don't live in the most densely populated areas or cities. We will experience the shortages of food, fuel, much higher prices, as well as shortages and blackouts, attendant on a population beyond carrying capacity.