Are the oceans on fire?

Question

"scientific studies showing rapid acidification of the Pacific Ocean because of chemical reaction with atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The new findings on Pacific Ocean acidification demand quick action, Inslee said.

"From an acidification standpoint, the ocean is on fire," he said. "We need to respond as if it is on fire.""

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/364800_climate28.html

Long story short the factors that are exacerbating global warming are also acidifying the oceans with devastating consequences including messing with many people's food supply.

Answer 1

the funny thing about that article is it's lack of intelligence. Most people realize that food prices have spiked because of our "fight to save the planet". In promoting Biofuels, the idiot environmentalist and politicians have condemned millions of poor to starvation. Way to go enviroweenies! Maybe you can out do your current record and kill even more people than when DDT was banned. You must be proud.

Answer 2

Fear tactics to manipulate & brainwash societies. The government would love people to become addicted to Prozac.

My 2 cents.

Answer 3

scary stuff, no wonder lots of folk dont want to know about it. if the ocean ecosystems collapse we really will be in deep shite.

http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0522-ocean...

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...

Answer 4

The increase in ocean acidification, from excessive atmospheric CO2, has long been a major concern of scientists.  The UK Royal Society (their Academy of Sciences) put out a fairly extensive study on this in 2005:

http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.a...

It's hard to predict things when they are changing faster than any time before in history (atmospheric CO2 is rising an order of magnitude faster than any time in past 20,000 years), but there was enough evidence in this report to raise concern and prompt action.  

Even if the global temperature didn't rise by more than 0.5 - 1.0 C (an unlikely minimum estimate), there still are serious negative consequences to the CO2 levels we are putting into the atmosphere.  The doubters don't seem to get this aspect of the problem.

Answer 5

Crazycon doesn't seem to realize the importance of the oceans for life on the planet.  Acidification doesn't mean the whales and sharks are in trouble.  It may mean the base of the food chain (algae and phytoplankton) are in trouble.  Acidification can greatly disrupt the grow for this base and jeopardize all life in the ocean, and ultimately land.   The ocean is where most of our oxygen comes from (I think the number I saw was ~ 80% but I can't reference this).  I'd worry more about drastic changes to ocean chemistry than loosing every tree on land (this would be very bad for lots of reasons, but would not affect O2 supplies as much).

A poor basic understanding of ecology makes some people unable to comprehend the severity of a problem.