For years now experts have been concerned that the ocean may get more acidic due to pollution and global warming. Various scenarios have been envisioned, and there has been a lot of speculation of what will happen if ocean acidification where to happen. Well, there will be no more speculation because ocean acidification has begun.
According to a recent study, there is more evidence now than ever before that the acidification of our oceans has begun. Scientists in Australia have found shells of amoeba-like organisms called Foraminifera, have become significantly thinner over the past few years. These species number in the billions in the oceans, but they are shrinking due to the lack of a strong shell to protect them.
The study blames greenhouse gas pollution which is causing CO2 to get into the ocean and increase the acidification of the oceans. Compared with shells of the creatures hundreds of years old, modern shells were found to be 30 to 35 percent thinner. This is a big problem because Foraminifera are extremely important to the food chain and they are very important in the fight against global warming. They take in carbon dioxide from the air and put it into their shells. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean where their shells store the CO2 forever. Losing this species, even a portion of them, will cause serious problems to the fight against global warming. In addition, they are an important part of a food chain that stretches from them, all the way up to whales.
In all, ocean acidity has increased 32 percent since the 1800s, and it is expected that by 2100, ocean acidification will have increased by an astonishing 130 percent, which will have a horrible effect on the ocean’s eco-systems, as well as the marine life in it.
Just another way that we are affecting the environment in ways that we had never even envisioned when we started this slippery slope hundreds of years ago during the Industrial Revolution.
Things need to change, and they need to change soon. We are at the point where we can understand what we are doing to the environment and how to fix it. The time is now to fix it and get things moving in the right direction, to a sunny future, rather than one filled with acid oceans, smoggy skies and suppressing heat.
