Even without the threat that global warming/climate change that is amplifying as emissions of CO2 and Methane increase every year from fossil-fuel combustion, the changes in seawater chemistry that the addition of the higher CO2 inputs is causing is just as great. And needs to be publicised more, so people understand just how important and grave a threat ocean acidification poses to planetary well-being and future generations quality of life. As usual, with most global warming and significant environmental issues, the US corporate media gives them very little attention, if not in many cases, providing deliberately false and understated information. We thought this article from the BBC was very interesting and enlightening.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17088154
'Jacuzzi vents' model CO2 future
At these volcanic vent sites,
carbon dioxide bubbles up like a Jacuzzi
A UK scientist studying volcanic
vents in the ocean says they hold a grave warning for future marine ecosystems.
These vents have naturally acidified waters that hint at how our seas might change if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise. They are conditions that would make it harder for corals and similar organisms to make the hard parts in their bodies.
Dr Jason Hall-Spencer's work suggests our oceans could lose perhaps 30% of their biodiversity this century.
The Plymouth University researcher has been presenting his latest findings to a major conference in Vancouver, Canada.
"I am investigating underwater volcanoes where carbon dioxide bubbles up like a Jacuzzi, acidifying large areas of the seabed, and we can see at these vents which types of organisms are able to thrive and which ones are most vulnerable," he told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Dr Hall-Spencer treats the vents like a time machine. As he swims towards them, the pH level of the water falls and he can use particular locations to simulate what the open ocean will be like in the decades ahead if emissions of atmospheric CO2 go unchecked and much of the that gas is absorbed into the sea [which is certain unless people world-wide can stop the corporate juggernaut bent on destroying the planet for short-term profit, eds.].
"What we see as you swim along a gradient of carbon dioxide, up to levels we expect for the end of this century, is diversity loss.
"As you go along that gradient, species drop out of the system," he told BBC News.
"It's not all calcified species - ones with hard shells or skeletons - which drop out; there are other organisms with soft bodies which drop out as well.
"This CO2 is a stressor. Some organisms can adapt but there're only a few species that can handle it. If I extend the gradient up to the year 2100 - that represents a 30% loss in biodiversity."
ACIDIFYING OCEANS
- The oceans are thought to have absorbed up to half of the extra CO2 put into the atmosphere in the industrial age
- This has lowered their pH by 0.1
- pH is the measure of acidity and alkalinity
- It ranges from pH 0 (very acidic) to pH 14 (very alkaline); 7 is neutral
- Seawater is mildly alkaline with a "natural" pH of about 8.2
- The IPCC forecasts that ocean pH will fall by "between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st Century, adding to the present decrease of 0.1 units since pre-industrial times"
At the end of last year, Dr Hall-Spencer published his
findings on one volcanic vent site off Ischia Island near Vesuvius. But at this
meeting, he reported soon-to-be-published data gathered at other volcanic vents
in Europe, Baja California and Papua New Guinea. They all show the same outcomes
as at Ischia.
"What's strange is that we see some organisms really up-regulate their physiology to try to cope with conditions - they grow faster. But it's like us panting for oxygen at high altitude - they're struggling.
"And in the summer, when temperatures are high, these organisms that are struggling just die. And that's very problematic because of course carbon dioxide not only acidifies seawater, but it is increasing the temperature of the atmosphere [and the seawater, eds]. And those two things combined are a double whammy."
Shells, like this Hexaplex
trunculus, dissolve at CO2 levels predicted for later this century The world's oceans have already absorbed a third to a half of the CO2 produced by humans, principally by the burning of fossil fuels, over the past 200 years.
This has resulted in a reduction of the pH of seawater by 0.1 units on the 14-point scale. If emissions of CO2 continue to rise as forecast, there could be another drop in pH up to perhaps 0.4 units by 2100.
These are changes that are occurring far too fast for the oceans to correct naturally, said Dr Richard Feely with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa)
"Fifty-five million years ago when we had an event like this (and that took over 10,000 years to occur), it took the oceans over 125,000 years to recover, just to get the chemistry back to normal," he told BBC News.
"It took two to 10 million years for the organisms to re-evolve, to get back into a normal situation.
"So what we do over the next 100 years or 200 years can have implications for ocean ecosystems from tens of thousands to millions of years. That's the implication of what we're doing to the oceans right now."
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
Unfortunately for the higher latitudes seas and oceans in the Arctic, like the Bering, Beaufort, Chukchi, etc.., ocean acidification will be even more of a problem, and sooner than in the tropics and mid-latitudes because "... Polar seas are considered particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification because the high solubility of CO2 in cold waters results in naturally low carbonate saturation states. CO2 induced acidification will easily render these waters sub-saturated, where seawater becomes corrosive for calcareous organisms. By the time atmospheric CO2 exceeds 490 parts per million (2040 to 2050, depending on the scenario considered), more than half of the Arctic Ocean is projected to be corrosive to aragonite. Arctic waters are home to a wide range of calcifying organisms, both in benthic and pelagic habitats, including shell fish, seas urchins, coralline algae, and calcareous plankton. Many of these are key species providing crucial links in the Arctic food web, such as the planktonic pteropods, which serve as food for fishes, seabirds and whales."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100603092018.htm
If the base of the marine food chain in the Arctic, and eventually waters further south, collapses, so too will populations of the larger species in the food webs in these areas. Collapses in marine food webs would have great ramifications for land-based ones, as well as decreasing the CO2 uptake by small marine creatures such as phytoplankton, allowing even more CO2 to build up in the atmosphere/oceans, leading to more warming, etc... Another positive feedback mechanism.
But because the global (not just US and western European) financial and industrial corporate sectors are only interested in perpetual growth and short-term profit, these changes are going to occur. Scientists across the globe understand what the threats are, and are even beginning to speak in more holistic terms about the changes that are needed in socio-political-economic systems, as this article well illustrates.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/20-5'Perpetual Growth Myth' Leading World to Meltdown: Experts
UN-Sponsored Papers Predict Sustained Ecological and Social Meltdown
"The current system is broken," says Bob Watson, the UK’s chief scientific
advisor on environmental issues and a winner of the prestigious Blue Planet
prize in 2010. "It is driving humanity to a future that is 3-5°C warmer than our
species has ever known, and is eliminating the ecology that we depend on for our
health, wealth and senses of self."
Smoke billows from burned trees. A
collective of scientists and development thinkers have warned that civilisation
faces an 'unprecedented emergency'. (Photograph: CRISTINA QUICKLER/AFP/Getty
Images)
"We cannot assume that technological fixes will come fast
enough. Instead we need human solutions. The good news is that they exist but
decision makers must be bold and forward thinking to seize them."
Watson's comments accompanied a new paper released today by 20 past winners of the Blue Planet Prize - often called the Nobel Prize for the environment, and comes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Rio+20 conference – which takes place in June this year – where world leaders will (it is hoped) seize the opportunity to set human development on a new, more sustainable path.
Civilization Faces 'Perfect Storm of Ecological and Social Problems'
In the face of an "absolutely unprecedented emergency", say the [...] past winners of the Blue Planet prize – the unofficial Nobel for the environment – society has "no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilization. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us".
The stark assessment of the current global outlook by the group, who include
[Watson]... US climate scientist James Hansen, Prof José Goldemberg, Brazil's
secretary of environment during the Rio Earth summit in 1992, and Stanford
University Prof Paul Ehrlich. [...]
"The perpetual growth myth ... promotes the impossible idea that indiscriminate economic growth is the cure for all the world's problems, while it is actually the disease that is at the root cause of our unsustainable global practices"
Apart from dire warnings about biodiversity loss and climate change, the group challenges governments to think differently about economic "progress".
"The rapidly deteriorating biophysical situation is more than bad enough, but it is barely recognized by a global society infected by the irrational belief that physical economies can grow forever and disregarding the facts that the rich in developed and developing countries get richer and the poor are left behind."
The group warns against over-reliance on markets but instead urges politicians to listen and learn from how poor communities all over the world see the problems of energy, water, food and livelihoods as interdependent and integrated as part of a living ecosystem.
The paper urges governments to:
- Replace GDP as a measure of wealth with metrics for natural, built, human and social capital - and how they intersect.
- Eliminate subsidies in sectors such as energy, transport and agriculture that create environmental and social costs, which currently go unpaid.
- Tackle over-consumption, and address population pressure by empowering women, improving education and making contraception accessible to all.
- Transform decision making processes to empower marginalized groups, and integrate economic, social and environmental policies instead of having them compete.
- Conserve and value biodiversity and ecosystem services, and create markets for them that can form the basis of green economies.
- Invest in knowledge - both in creating and in sharing it - through research and training that will enable governments, business, and society at large to understand and move towards a sustainable future.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The paper by the Blue Planet laureates will challenge governments and society as a whole to act to limit human-induced climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in order to ensure food, water energy and human security. I would like to thank Professor Watson and colleagues for eloquently articulating their vision on how key development challenges can be addressed, emphasizing solutions; the policies, technologies and behavior changes required to grow green economies, generate jobs and lift people out of poverty without pushing the world through planetary boundaries.”
***
A second UNEP report was also released today in
Kenya. Though separate from the assessment of the Planet Blue laureates, it
echoes many of their themes and concerns.
Capital FM News in Kenya reports:
A new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned of a continued deterioration in the state of the global environment due to failure by governments to implement internationally agreed goals.
The summary report released at the sidelines of a UNEP Governing Council meeting in Nairobi stated that out of the 90 internationally agreed goals, only 40 were in progress, 32 had insufficient progress while 13 were not in development at all.
“We have failed to meet agreed goals,” Peter Gilruth Director Division of Early Warning Assessment (DEWA) UNEP said.
“The internationally agreed goal of avoiding the adverse effects of climate change is presenting the global community with one of its most serious challenges that is threatening overall development goals,” he noted.
He added that the rate at which forest loss, particularly in the tropics was taking place remained alarmingly high.
“Today, 80 percent of the world’s population live in areas with high levels of threat to water security, affecting 3.4 billion people mostly in developing countries,” he stated.
The Fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO 5) assessed progress and gaps in the implementation of internationally agreed goals on environment and the full report would be released in June ahead of the Rio+20 Summit on sustainable development.
The report recommended that policy makers focus on the underlying drivers of environmental change such as the negative aspects of population growth, consumption and production, urbanisation rather than just concentrating on reducing environmental pressures or symptoms.
Unfortunately, in the US and now even in western Europe, the "Corporatocracy" continues to accelerate it's drive to push back socio-political and economic systems/models to that not seen since around 1900, erasing the gains of the labour, environmental, and even women's rights movements in pursuit of short-term profits. When completely unregulated capitalism kept average working people living in misery, toiling 60-80 hours a week for abysmal pay in unsafe conditions (which of course is how most modern conveniences are still made in "third World" countries today), whilst creating terrible pollution and unsafe food/water and drugs. But in 1900, the global population was only 1.6 billion, and now it is 7 billion, and may be 9-10 billion by 2050! We don't think it takes rocket scientists to understand how serious a situation humanity faces in the decades ahead, unless we are able to change our societies to ones that are not focused on corporate profit, but on meeting the needs of people, and protecting/sustaining the environment. For us here at the Alaska Progressive Review, that means supporting/voting for Green, or other alternative party politicians, at all levels. Supporting the Occupy and other movements working for positive changes as well, as they continue to highlight the problems we are facing. We'll also be focusing our attention and research to write about new developments in alternative energy and environmental science issues. Cheers.
