Post by LSDeep on Sept 21, 2005 16:10:33 GMT -5
21sep05
INCREASING ocean acidity caused by greenhouse gas emissions will be a catastrophe for marine organisms if left unchecked, new research from one of the world's top scientific organisations warns.
University of NSW visiting speaker Dr John Bradshaw today released a paper by The Royal Society, based in the UK, which warns organisms vital for a healthy marine environment could come under threat.
Dr Bradshaw said rising atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel emissions had caused ocean pH levels to fall, making seawater more acidic.
"This acidification of the ocean is irreversible during our lifetimes," he said in a statement.
"The Royal Society has identified that if this continues, it will have a catastrophic effect on marine organisms, especially squid and cuttlefish, which are vital to the overall health of marine ecosystems."
pH is an abbreviation of potential for hydrogen and expresses how acidic or alkaline a solution or chemical is, using a scale of zero to 14. Pure distilled water has a pH of 7.0.
Dr Bradshaw said atmospheric carbon dioxide reacts with seawater to produce bicarbonate and hydrogen ions, which increases the acidity of seawater.
"Following the last ice age, the world's oceans had a pH of 8.3," he said.
"This fell to 8.2 as carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels accelerated during the past 200 years and reached 8.1 in the last decade.
"Most recently, oceanic pH has fallen by another 0.1.
"As the pH scale is logarithmic, a 0.1 pH drop is equivalent to a 30 per cent increase in the concentration of hydrogen ions."
Dr Bradshaw said the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide was today about 380 parts per million whereas over the past 400,000 years it had been stable at around 275 parts.
He said many projections tipped this figure would rise to about 550 parts per million by the middle of this century.
"For the past decade, Australia has had some of the world's highest levels of per-capita, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions due to its reliance on burning coal for power generation, and its energy intensive industries," Dr Bradshaw said.
He said China and India posed the biggest challenge to curbing future carbon dioxide emissions, with 50 per cent of the planned coal-fired power stations in the next 50 years to be built there.
"Vital to any plans to substantially reduce global emissions will be transfer, demonstration and implementation of new technology into developing countries," he said.
Dr Bradshaw is the group leader of Geoscience Australia's petroleum greenhouse gas advice project.
INCREASING ocean acidity caused by greenhouse gas emissions will be a catastrophe for marine organisms if left unchecked, new research from one of the world's top scientific organisations warns.
University of NSW visiting speaker Dr John Bradshaw today released a paper by The Royal Society, based in the UK, which warns organisms vital for a healthy marine environment could come under threat.
Dr Bradshaw said rising atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel emissions had caused ocean pH levels to fall, making seawater more acidic.
"This acidification of the ocean is irreversible during our lifetimes," he said in a statement.
"The Royal Society has identified that if this continues, it will have a catastrophic effect on marine organisms, especially squid and cuttlefish, which are vital to the overall health of marine ecosystems."
pH is an abbreviation of potential for hydrogen and expresses how acidic or alkaline a solution or chemical is, using a scale of zero to 14. Pure distilled water has a pH of 7.0.
Dr Bradshaw said atmospheric carbon dioxide reacts with seawater to produce bicarbonate and hydrogen ions, which increases the acidity of seawater.
"Following the last ice age, the world's oceans had a pH of 8.3," he said.
"This fell to 8.2 as carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels accelerated during the past 200 years and reached 8.1 in the last decade.
"Most recently, oceanic pH has fallen by another 0.1.
"As the pH scale is logarithmic, a 0.1 pH drop is equivalent to a 30 per cent increase in the concentration of hydrogen ions."
Dr Bradshaw said the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide was today about 380 parts per million whereas over the past 400,000 years it had been stable at around 275 parts.
He said many projections tipped this figure would rise to about 550 parts per million by the middle of this century.
"For the past decade, Australia has had some of the world's highest levels of per-capita, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions due to its reliance on burning coal for power generation, and its energy intensive industries," Dr Bradshaw said.
He said China and India posed the biggest challenge to curbing future carbon dioxide emissions, with 50 per cent of the planned coal-fired power stations in the next 50 years to be built there.
"Vital to any plans to substantially reduce global emissions will be transfer, demonstration and implementation of new technology into developing countries," he said.
Dr Bradshaw is the group leader of Geoscience Australia's petroleum greenhouse gas advice project.