It was fairly alarming, even to scientists, to hear the latest research regarding ocean acidification — a powerful change in ocean chemistry that results from excess carbon dioxide passing from the atmosphere into the oceans of the world.
One of the most alarming reports came from Richard Feely, senior scientist at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. Dick talked about how changes in ocean chemistry will soon accelerate, with damaging consequences, as the ocean’s buffering capacity begins to break down.
Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
It’s all a bit technical, but I worked carefully with Dick and other scientists to find ways to explain their findings, so that average people can gain some insight into the oceanic changes taking place. Check out “Rate of ocean acidification may accelerate, scientists warn,” a story I wrote for the Washington Ocean Acidification Center at the University of Washington and republished in the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound.
It turns out that, because of ocean currents, some of the most severe changes are taking place in the Pacific Ocean off the Northwest coast, and this issue of buffering capacity is something that should be getting more attention.
“If we continue down the road we are on, we will see very dramatic changes in the next 10 to 20 years,” Dick declared at last year’s Ocean Acidification Science Symposium in Seattle.
My story is organized by topic. If you are more interested in the biological effects than the chemical effects, then you can skip down to the sections about fish, crabs, plankton and vegetation, or environmental DNA, as researchers explain the effects of climate change and ocean acidification in our region.
I keep hoping that if people can read enough about ocean acidification and climate change, then they will better understand the problems our world is facing and demand changes sooner than later. I’m talking about personal choices as well as government actions.
Unfortunately, we all seem to be distracted by other things in our lives. Social media is filled with people expressing outrage about relatively trivial matters. While there is plenty of outrage flying around, the emotional impact can get pretty exhausting.
My hope is that people can set aside their emotions for a time and begin to deal with facts. I know it seems hard to separate fact from falsehood, but if one considers the sources of information and digs for the facts, I’m confident that reality will emerge.
