Increasingly Acidic Pacific Coast
Waters Threaten Marine Life
© 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe
“For ocean chemistry, this is very dramatic – a bigger change
than we’ve seen for at least the last 5 million years on planet Earth.
And it’s more than 100 times faster rate of change than we’ve seen
over that period.” - Christopher Sabine, Ph.D., NOAA
June 21, 2008 Corvallis, Oregon and Shelton, Washington - None of the global warming climate models saw open oceans increasing in acidity by 30% or more until the end of the 21st Century. But a new study published in the June 2008 journal, Science, shows that Powell ocean water only four miles off the northern California shore, is already 30% more acidic than normal.
All the carbon dioxide absorbed by seawater has produced increasing amounts of carbonic acid. The calcium carbonate shells of clams, oysters, corals, small snails called Pteropods and some planktons weaken and disintegrate in carbonic acid.
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