BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Acid oceans 'need urgent action'

When it Comes to CO2, What Goes Up Also Goes Down

BBC NEWS Science & Environment Acid oceans 'need urgent action'

The BBC is the only place I see this issue being raised. CO2 does serious damage to the atmosphere, leading to the global warming crisis, which has finally reached the attention of enough people to allow for a change in the political viability of environmental issues.

But the voting public remains largely unaware of the associated problem of CO2 absorption by the world's oceans. The oceans are the cradle of life on earth. The natural ph balance of the ocean, attained over millions of years of evolution, is alkaline. The absorbtion of CO2 from industrial activity has altered the balance from alkaline to acid. It is the alkaline nature of seawater that supports the formation of protective shells by the ocean's simple creatures; including the diatoms at the food chain's end. If this were a 50's movie, there would be scary organ music playing as I add - the basis of all life on earth.

Picture the classic cartoon, often seen on the sides of coffee mugs; a tiny fish about to be swallowed by a larger fish about to be swallowed by a still larger fish, about to be...

And then picture yourself in a seafood restaurant with no seafood on the menu. The chain of life on earth, from its most basic to its most complex, is facing an urgent threat from human action and inaction. We remain blissfully and willfully unaware of an unfolding cascade of extinctions; both flora and fauna all over the earth, and throughtout the oceans, and all caused directly by human hands.

It seems that the lack of awareness cannot be blamed on inaction by scientists. As the following link shows, the scientific community has been raising the alarm for decades.

Mass Extinction Underway Biodiversity Crisis Global Species Loss


It has been reported in detail in many sources including National Geographic, as a period of mass extinction potentially greater than the period leading to the end of the age of the dinosaurs.

DHL