Recently we have been talking about pH levels in water, and I stumbled upon this interesting article about how these factors affect marine life in the oceans. Increases in anthropogenically-sourced, atmospheric carbon dioxide are threatening the global oceans. According to research done at Colombia University, higher CO2 emissions are acidifying the oceans at an alarming rate. In fact, the oceans are acidifying at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years. The water absorbs carbon dioxide, which turns into carbonic acid, in turn acidifying the oceans. This drop in pH adversely affects marine life all along the food chain. For example, when exposed to waters with lower-than-average pH, oyster larvae shells begin to dissolve before they fully form, and sea urchin larvae change shape. All of this is leading to higher rates of oyster larvae, sea urchin larvae, and barnacle mortality. I also briefly looked over the comments posted at the bottom of the article, which were almost as interesting as the article itself. Some of the people's comments really surprised me: "The next big hoax to fool the fools," "Sure pollution is a problem [ ... ] but the radical crying and whining isn't helping," "Democrats are making up science," and "the ocean is salty and cannot possibly turn acidic." It seems as if about half the people who read the article do not believe the science. There was even talk of a conspiracy involving President Obama, because of the Colombia connection. It is funny how people react to hard-to-swallow, often scientific concepts like global warming, the overpopulation of the earth, or acidification of the oceans. The motivations of these people are varied, but the science is concrete. What are our thoughts on the article, people's reactions, or both?
Full article here: http://www.theolympian.com/2012/03/09/2022663/ocean-acid-levels-alarming.html#disqus_thread
People are much more impacted by the political sphere than by the scientific community. It's sad that scientific studies are paid for and used to further political motives, because it degrades the studies in the public eye. The doubt cast on global warming is only because it was a left-right argument and so it seemed as whimsical and debatable as all the other things than the left and right of the political spectrum (ha!) fight about.
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