Environmental Issues: Ocean Acidification The unique circumstances of planet earth are due to one special ecological feature: liquid H2O. Our planet is far enough away from the sun to keep all of the water on its surface from evaporation yet close enough to prevent it all from freezing. This water is the source and sustaining factor of life as we know it. In fact, the earth is seventy five percent water. Most of that water in contained in earth’s oceans. However, the last few centuries of global industrialization have brought major changes to our shores. Changes that need to be addressed.
Due to large scale absorption of man-made carbon emissions, we have seen a significant increase in oceanic acidification. (Boyd, Spinrad 2015) Acidification
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These new acidic conditions are also jeopardizing the one hundred thousand jobs involved in the one billion dollar west coast shell fish industry. We cannot yet know all of the long term and interrelated exosystemic effects of these new conditions. However, all current known information indicates that, whatever the outcome, it will not be good. (Boyd, Spinrad 2015)
Given the serious nature of oceanic acidification, I think most people would agree that it is a problem that we need to fix. The main issue we face in maintaining healthy oceans is emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). This is the product of mass industrialization and the energy required to make it all possible. So where do all these carbon emissions come from? Fossil fuels, like oil, coal, and natural gasses, are combusted to release energy in the form of heat. That heat is used to create steam which power turbine generators. Those generators transform that energy into the form that we know and use. However, in that first critical phase of combustion, the natural byproduct of all combustion reactions is carbon dioxide (CO2). (BBC 2014) So, the next question would be, where
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One of the greatest emitters of carbon dioxide is the oil industry. It accounts for over thirty percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. (Environmental Protection Agency 2016) However, the oil industry is an important source of jobs in this country. Employing almost nine million eight hundred thousand people, and the average hourly wages of over forty dollars an hour. (Bureau of Labor 2016) Over four times the California minimum wage. It is a major concern of many that new regulations to the industry could harm these jobs. However, new jobs in the field of clean emissions free energy are on the rise and projected to grow in great numbers over time, as many as six million three hundred thousand new jobs by 2030. (World Watch Institute 2016) This is bolstered by the three million four hundred thousand new job that were created by the end of 2013. (Small 2015) With well-paying jobs in emissions free energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal we could, in all probability, make up any lost
The Landlady and There Will Come Soft Rains may be two different stories. Despite having two different authors, both have similar yet different writing styles. There is obliviousness in both Billy and the house. The house being oblivious to the fact that no one is there. Billy ignores all the signs that he may be murdered and stuffed. In the end of both stories the authors seems to make you feel bad for the main character. Sad when Billy dies, and sad or lonely when the house gets destroyed and dog dies.
G., Cong-Qiang, L., WeiDong, Z., Minella, M., Vione, D., Kunshan, G., & ... Hiroshi, S. (2016). Reviews and Syntheses: Ocean acidification and its potential impacts on marine ecosystems. Biogeosciences, 13(6), 1767. doi:10.5194/bg-13-1767-2016
This increase in oceanic inorganic carbon has offset the seawater carbonate chemistry by causing increasing concentrations of CO2 and bicarbonate, while causing decreasing concentrations of carbonate and pH levels (Dedmer 2013). Rost and colleagues (2008) express that emissions of fossil fuel have caused an immense increase in the levels of atmospheric CO2, which are then deposited into the surface water of oceans. This increase in carbonic acid is in turn decreasing the pH balance, which poses a threat to marine organisms.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, mankind has slowly increased the total greenhouse gas emissions that enter the atmosphere. Over time, this pollution began to add up. Now planet Earth is struggling to maintain its health with the combined forces of global warming and ocean acidification looking to bring demise. From all portions of the world, troubling changes are emerging in the chemistry of our oceans’ waters. The oceans takes in around a quarter of the Carbon Dioxide that mankind releases into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels rise, so do the
Ocean Acidification is a process that occurs everyday and majorly affects our planet, but most people don’t even realize it exists. Though it can technically be argued that Ocean Acidification has some benefits for the planet, most of the time the effects of this process are very poor and negatively affect the entire world around us. Human evolution has played a major role in contributing to Ocean Acidification. Whenever humans use energy we release Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere or also known as CO2. This can be in the form of burning fossil fuels from the ground or the removal of national forest by burning. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which means whenever we can emit it in large quantities or unnatural amounts it can have negative effects on the atmosphere. These high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere result in climate change and more specifically Ocean Acidification. Ocean Acidification occurs when excess Carbon Dioxide is absorbed into the ocean. When this process takes place it can completely disturb the chemical balances of the water. For example, it can reduce pH levels, Biodiversity, and the abundance of calcifying species.
In the modern industrial era, the levels of Carbon Dioxide produced are much more significant than in years before. Due to Carbon Dioxides involvement in ocean acidification, this is a major issue. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the pH of the ocean surface has fallen by 0.1 units. Although this may not seem significant, due to the logarithmic properties of the pH scale, this change signifies about a 30% increase in ocean acidity. If this issue isn’t addressed, there will be dire consequences for both marine organisms, as well as humans. To understand ocean acidification, some chemistry needs to be defined and understood.
With emissions from cars and deforestation at an all time high, so is the amount of carbon dioxide being dissolved into the world’s oceans. There are seemingly endless things people could be doing to help stop this, but don’t. This is because ocean acidification is one of the least advocated problems. Ocean acidification is one of the largest factors affecting today’s oceans and affects every ocean organism.
Ocean acidification can be explained by a series of simple chemical reactions (Doney et al. 2008):
When carbon dioxide enters the ocean, reacts with seawater, producing carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of water. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels for energy, have made ocean acidification 30% increase compared to pre-industrial levels. This has caused the pH of surface waters of the oceans has fallen 0.1 units. If carbon emissions continue to increase at the current
Sometimes called “climate change’s equivalently destructive twin”, ocean acidification is becoming more and more noticeable as the seawater’s changing chemistry begins to cause environmental and economical problems. When the Industrial Revolution began around 1760, fossil fuel–powered machines gained an immense amount of accessibility and popularity. Since then, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have risen enough to change the pH of the world’s oceans. Given that the ocean absorbs almost half of the CO2 that is released into our atmosphere, ocean acidification is inclining into an even greater problem as fossil fuels become a more common energy source in our society. Higher acid levels can harm wildlife, disrupt the food chain, and negatively impact industries that rely on the ocean for business. Ocean acidification is causing growing dilemmas for both marine ecosystems and ocean-based economies. Although many companies and organizations are attempting to fix this problem, acidification is still threatening to cause increasingly harmful issues for the future.
In current times, as we consider ways to inhibit CO2 emissions, we look towards the Earth’s natural carbon sinks as possible solutions. Carbon sinks an environment that can hold onto carbon chemicals for an indefinite time with the act of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere defined as carbon sequestration. The Oceans are one of them. However, when the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide elevates in a short period of time, this can lead to Ocean Acidification, the phenomena where the dissolution of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere leads to the lowering of ocean pH (Greene, et al., 2012).
Ocean acidification is the process through which acid is formed due to the burning of fossil fuels in modern industrial society and combined with ocean water. There are unwanted gas like carbon dioxide which are now a days increasing due to human activities emission in to the environment and much of the carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and the combination of carbon dioxide emitted when combined with the ocean water, carbonic acid is formed and this will dissociate to form bicarbonate ions and hydrogen ions reducing the PH of the ocean or changing the ocean water in to acid and this process is called ocean acidification.
Ocean acidification is a bad consequence. Which is excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Which we don't see or feel because its effects are happening underwater. Ocean acidification is known for being the “climate change’s equally evil twin.” At least one quarter of the carbon dioxide released by burning coal also by oil and gas. They don’t go into the air instead it dissolves into the ocean. Ocean warming is how the atmosphere affects oceans, and oceans influence the atmosphere. It might be a great thing scientists thought. Less carbon dioxide in the air to warm up the planet, scientists said. This has slowed warming. Many changes came at the ocean’s chemistry. As the air temperature rises up, oceans absorb some of this heat and become warmer also. The water becomes more acidic when carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater. It drops the ocean’s pH. Scientists didn’t worry about this process. Reason being, they always assumed that rivers carried enough dissolved chemicals. Which come from rocks to the ocean to keep the ocean’s pH stable. Carbon dioxide has been quickly dissolving. Natural buffering hasn’t even been able to keep up. Resulting in dropping pH in surface waters. The surface layers mix into deep water. The entire ocean is affected. The future is unpredictable
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we exhale in our daily lives. Plants use carbon dioxide to create oxygen that all mammals use. However, carbon dioxide can also change the chemistry of the ocean, this is often referred to as ocean acidification. The excess carbon dissolves into oxygen in the water, producing a chemical called carbonic acid. This acid causes the ocean to become more acidic. In the eighteenth century, the pH was 8.07 which was slightly basic. Currently, the pH is around 8.01 this is about a twenty-five percent increase in acidity. (National geographic) While this slight change may not seem outrageous, it is causing multiple marine life struggles. The acid melts the shells of pteropods causing a low supply of food that would support larger fish.
Many aquatic animals' life depend on the acidity of the ocean. Changes in the pH level of the ocean could cause problems with: growth, reproduction, and chemical communication. Mussels in particular are targeted as shellfish in danger of dying because of high acidity levels in the ocean. Mussels have trouble building their shells in