This is an ecological problem I hadn't heard about before. The carbon sinking that the oceans perform is raising the acidity of the seawater much faster than expected. These changes have the potential to significantly impact marine life, possibly in devastating ways. The key points from the article are:
- The process is happening much faster than predicted, with acidic water only four miles off the Northern California coast.
- The water is already acidic enough to dissolve shells, corals, tiny animals, and fish eggs
- What we're seeing now is a result of things that happened about 50 years ago--which is to say that the problem is likely to get far worse even if we immediately shut down human carbon release
If accurate, this is a horrifying discovery.
Thanks to Nathan for the link.
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