The reason Continuations has not had any new entries for a few days is that we went away on a family trip to the Virgin Islands. We have done a lot of snorkeling with the kids but in preparation for this trip we started to get Scuba certified. The theory portion of the certification included an extensive chapter on underwater plants and animals, which provided a great reminder of the mind boggling diversity and complexity of the ecosystem in the oceans. I am thrilled to report that two of us managed to complete our first open water dive and it was truly spectacular. The sensation of floating below the surface is simply sublime.
But it is impossible to look at the underwater beauty and not think about the huge threat it is facing due to acidification from the increased uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere. The oceans absorb a little more than half of the CO2 in the atmosphere. The significant increase of CO2 from human activity is resulting in a lower pH of ocean water, meaning oceans are becoming more acidic. That interferes with coral growth and also with shell formation for many species. This is not just a problem from a species preservation perspective, but also has the potential to impact the entire food chain which ultimately supports us humans as well.
At the place we were staying, we met the sculptor Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh. She is working on a series of sculptures of petropods, which are microscopic mollusks at or near the bottom of the oceanic food chain. We learned from Cornelia that the petropods ability to form a shell is much reduced by acidification which could have dire consequences for all species further up the chain.
I have written before how I believe that human CO2 emissions are responsible for climate change. Inevitably someone in the comments disagrees with that. It seems to me that the ocean acidification alone should be reason enough for us to want to dramatically reduce our CO2 output as a species and investigate more aggressive methods for removing CO2 from the atmosphere. It is not lost on me that I travel a lot by airplane and air travel is a major contributor to additional atmospheric CO2. I have been buying Carbon offsets, but learning about acidification is yet another reason to try to substitute Skype for at least some of my air travel.
