Ocean Acidification Is Destroying Our Environment

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.

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

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

“How acidification threatens ocean from the inside out: Carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic, imperiling the growth and reproduction of species from plankton to squid”, by Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina addresses the dangers of increasing acidity in the ocean caused by carbon dioxide. Hardt, a research scientist and writer, is the founder of Ocean Ink. Safina, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, is the founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute.

Over the past couple of years, no other issue has received more attention in the marine community than ocean acidification. Marine biologists have been constantly working towards solving this issue and are hoping to see improvement’s very soon. Ocean acidification refers to the relentless growth in acidity of the Earth’s oceans. This on-going acidity has attributed to an important element; a constant rise of carbon dioxide levels in the Earth. The number one reason this issue is still happening is because of burning fossil fuels. In addition to burning fossil fuels, it has come to a point where it has enlarged a large amount of carbon dioxide by releasing it into the atmosphere. Chemists have taken this issue into attention that carbon enters the ocean and combines with seawater to fallout acid, which boosts the level of acidity. This process is known as ocean acidification.

Ocean acidification is the process in which the ocean soaks up carbon dioxide and its pH lowers. At the current point in time, the pH in the ocean has dropped 0.1 pH. ALthough this doesn’t seem like much, since pH is logarithmic, this means that the ocean is 30% more acidic than before. This jump in acidity will literally melt the shells of oysters, and sometimes even fish. What causes ocean acidification is carbon dioxide. Normally, carbon dioxide wouldn’t be that much of a problem as the ocean has a natural buffering system. The carbon dioxide would combine with the water molecules and create a bicarbonate ion then it would gain another H+ molecule and would create a carbonic acid. This acid replaces the much needed carbonate molecules which

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

ocean’s eco-system that we wouldn’t be forced to adjust to prosper in a safe and effective way of survival. An organization once stated that, “the air that you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat, the products that keep you warm, safe, informed, and entertained — all can come from or be transported by the ocean, you hurt it is, its just going to hurt you back,” (Protect Plant Ocean). That quote relates back to this, ocean acidification is a socio- ecological system that will have to carry out the repercussions of being universal, evidently supported and complex. It is a wicked problem that will be hard to turn around and what our society is doing is we are learning how to deal with the effects by having the ability to survive without

Ocean acidification can be defined as the continuous decrease of the pH of Earth’s oceans. This process occurs as a result of the rise in carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Due to the rapid industrialization of various countries on Earth, humans have become more accessible to energy by utilizing non-renewable resources that are derived from carbon in the ground.

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).

Weather has often changed through of planet history due to changes associated to the solar activity, but since the Industrial Revolution, human action plays an indisputable role in this process. From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, oceans have absorbed around 30% of the CO2 emissions, resulting in too big consequences to chemical composition of sea water, ecosystems, and biodiversity. Acidification is one of the different CO2 emissions consequences that, at the same time, has accelerated weather changes. Recently, scientists have shown that burning oil, coal or gas, change quickly ocean basic chemistry, which makes the water to become more acid. Every day there is more evidence that acidification affects marine life around the

This report is focused on Ocean acidification and it’s lowering of seawater PH levels that results from a continuing in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. There are potentially adverse biological and ecological consequences occurring now and in the future results of this process.

The world we live in is so vast and exciting. Seventy percent of our world is liquid water we call the ocean. In the ocean there are many creatures that each are unique in their own way. However, it is possible that in our lifetime, many marine organisms will become endangered or possibly extinct. The loss of these mejestic marine creatures will be caused mainly because of human advancements in which fossil fuels are used to produce energy. Biodiversity is greatly affected by this increase in acidity. As the ocean acidifies, multiple social and economic issues arise. As humans, we rely on the ocean for almost everything. Much of our food, clothing, cleaning products and cosmetics come from the ocean. With the loss of

Oceans cover about 70% of the earth’s surface. For millions of years, the sea has been responsible for absorbing most of the carbon dioxide in the air. In fact, oceans absorb about one-third or 22 million tons a day of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. On the other hand, as people have further developed their technology, developing cars with the combustion of gasoline, manufacturing goods involving factories and burning coal, additional greenhouse gases have been released. The advancements have come at a price having the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide than customary. In fact, before scientist started seeing ocean acidification as a threat, it was believed that the ocean’s capacity to absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere was limitless. During the start

14.3 minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels