LAT, part 5 of 5, "Altered Oceans": A Chemical Imbalance

[DeepModem Mom]

PART FIVE
ALTERED OCEANS
A Chemical Imbalance
Growing seawater acidity threatens to wipe out coral, fish and other crucial species worldwide.
By Usha Lee McFarling, Times Staff Writer
August 3, 2006

....As industrial activity pumps massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment, more of the gas is being absorbed by the oceans. As a result, seawater is becoming more acidic, and a variety of sea creatures await the same dismal fate as (Victoria) Fabry's pteropods.

The greenhouse gas, best known for accumulating in the atmosphere and heating the planet, is entering the ocean at a rate of nearly 1 million tons per hour — 10 times the natural rate.

Scientists report that the seas are more acidic today than they have been in at least 650,000 years. At the current rate of increase, ocean acidity is expected, by the end of this century, to be 2 1/2 times what it was before the Industrial Revolution began 200 years ago. Such a change would devastate many species of fish and other animals that have thrived in chemically stable seawater for millions of years.

Less likely to be harmed are algae, bacteria and other primitive forms of life that are already proliferating at the expense of fish, marine mammals and corals.

In a matter of decades, the world's remaining coral reefs could be too brittle to withstand pounding waves. Shells could become too fragile to protect their occupants. By the end of the century, much of the polar ocean is expected to be as acidified as the water that did such damage to the pteropods aboard the Discoverer....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-me-ocean3au...

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended for the food chain, Plankton Rocks!

Hang in their Plankton Sorry we are trashing your world
Apparently evolution has not kicked in allowing our common sense to keep up with our technical prowess. On the plus side this is the answer to peak oil, as humanity dies out from our shortsightedness, we will become more fossil fuel for whatever evolves after us in a few million years.