Carbon Dioxide and Earth's Future Pursuing the ... - Magazooms

10. Marine Life Dissolving Away in Acidified Oceans
The claim: Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations are lowering seawater pH, resulting in
reduced calcification, metabolism, fertility, growth and survival of many marine species.
www.co2science.org
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Another dire prediction that has raised
its ugly head in the climate-alarmistinspired
campaign to force reductions
in anthropogenic CO2 emissions is the
contention that continued increases in
the air’s CO2 content will lead to ever
more carbon dioxide dissolving in the
surface waters of the world’s oceans
and lowering their pH values, which
phenomenon is claimed to make it
more difficult for biological calcification
to occur in marine organisms. It has
been estimated, for example, that the
globe’s seawater has been acidified
(actually made less basic) by about 0.1
pH unit relative to what it was in preindustrial
times; and model calculations
imply there could be an additional drop
somewhere in the neighborhood of
between 0.3 to 0.7 pH unit by the year
2300. And a pH reduction of this magnitude is viewed by many as a cause for great concern, as
it has been postulated to harm calcifying marine life such as corals, not only by reducing their
calcification rates, but by negatively impacting their metabolism, fertility, growth and survival.
This ocean acidification hypothesis has gained great momentum in recent years, because it
offers an independent reason for regulating fossil fuel emissions in addition to that provided by
concerns about global warming; for even if the models employed by climate alarmists are
proven to be wrong with respect to their predictions of unprecedented temperature increases -
- as well as all the catastrophic consequences associated with that warming -- those who desire
to regulate CO2 emissions now have a fall-back position, which contends that no matter what
happens to the planet’s climate, the nations of the earth must still reduce their CO2 emissions
because of their direct negative impacts on calcifying marine organisms.
Over time, the rhetoric of these acidification alarmists has risen tremendously, as illustrated in
a couple of quotes from a short, 21-minute film released in late 2009 by the National Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) entitled Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification (Natural
Resources Defense Council, 2009). With Sigourney Weaver as its narrator, the film highlights
the alarmist views of a handful of scientists, a commercial fisherman and two NRDC employees,
as they discuss what they claim is a megadisaster-in-the-making for earth’s marine life.
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