Ocean Acidification

The threat of ocean acidification is getting some attention recently. Many marine scientists (more than 150) from all over the world are asking policy-makers to take this threat very seriously and find a way to reduce CO2 emissions. According to these scientists, the acidification is already detectable and is rapidly accelerating. How does CO2 in the atmosphere cause ocean acidification?

The ocean absorbs a lot of the gas and it is dissolved and converted to carbonic acid. According to Oceana, this acid destroys many shells and layers on animals that are key to ecosystem survival. The acid breaks down these calcium carbonate shells.

Not only does the CO2 affect animals with calcium carbonate shells, but animals like squid that require a lot of oxygen will not be able to absorb as much. Acidity in the ocean also affects the squid’s blood acidity.

The oceans pH has already dropped from 8.16 to 8.05 since the late 1980’s. There is some evidence that this drastic change in pH will also hamper the development of various marine larvae.

What can you do to help? Besides lowering the amount of CO2 you personally produce, you can write policy makers. Let people know. Talk to others about how lovely the ocean is. Remind them how important it is and how much of our oxygen comes from the ocean.

Off my little soapbox. Sorry. I get carried away.

You can find the source here.

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"Wine" About Climate Change

Wine is a beautiful thing when you stop to think about it. The complexities of flavors and bouquets are caused by a microbiological process. There are tannins in wine which do all sorts of silly things to proteins. Besides all the beautiful science, however, there is the flavor, the smell, the how-it-makes-you-feel of wine that we all love. Well, this wine lover just found another reason to appreciate this lovely grape libation!

In the wine's alcohol, there is a "footprint" of the amount of fossil-fuel derived carbon dioxide in the air above the vineyard! Since this is very accurate and there are so many vineyards, this is a better source of information about how much CO2 we are putting out. The CO2 reading stations are few and far between, but grapes are grown around the world. That, coupled with the fact that so many bottles are kept for so long, we have a record of fossil-fuel based CO2 dating back many years.

Not only is wine good for you because of the resveratrol, but it is a great map of the fossil fuel usage! So handy. Just don't drink any tiger wine. Not good. Wine from grapes. Good.

You can find the source article here.

Cheers!

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Positive Effects of Global Warming

Okay, I know what you are thinking... there is NOTHING positive about global warming. Well, you are wrong. It's all in how you look at things. In a brilliantly written opinion piece at the BBC website, Russell Mittermeier points out that our very serious climate change issue has rallied together people from all walks of life, of very different backgrounds and united them for a common good. The animals in danger of extinction no longer just have a few "weirdo hippies" to look out for them, now almost everyone is! There is strength in numbers and now, more than ever, are people trying to change how they impact the world ecologically. This is a good thing. So there really is a silver lining to all of this... This gives me a little more hope.

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Ice Caps are Melting

In another article I found on my very-quickly-becoming-favorite news source, the BBC, they mention how quickly the icecaps are melting. Some people write this off as "hey, it happens." The warm before the ice age if you will. What do you think? Is this just naive, or are we speeding up nature's normal cycle? I have lots of information on the latter because there is no published data (read: scientific peer review articles) that denounces global warming, but feel free to tell me what you think. I would love to argue both sides of this!

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