In addition to the famous impacts of atmospheric carbon on global warming, there is an equally worrisome effect of carbon dioxide on the oceans: ocean acidification (or OA for short). Here at I2SEA we have a series of resources about OA, including Our Acidifying Ocean, which is an introductory activity and virtual lab (note: now mobile compatible!).
A student suggested that we start a conversation topic about OA, and here it is! Have you heard about Ocean Acidification? If so, are you worried about it? How do you think we can best raise awareness about it among your fellow students and the general public? Have you seen particularly good links or films about OA that you would like to share? What are you doing to address the problem?
Ocean Acidification >
Pollution of the ocean
We need to reduce as much as possible our emission of CO2 in order to fight against the pollution of the ocean. Because if we keep polluting as of today, corals will die sooner or later and fish will be less and less present and we will not be able to eat fish whenever we want.
Living on an island, I felt more concerned about this serious problem.
I definitely agree with this post. The carbon dioxide polluting the atmosphere is making the ocean more acidic and killing many marine animals and the coral. Marine animals with shells are being heavily affected by the acidity of the ocean. Pteropods are an example of this and they can no longer make their shells as solid because of the carbon in the ocean. This means that they are more likely to be killed before they can have kids so there are less pteropods. If pteropods go extinct animals that eat them will no longer have anything to eat and will also go extinct. This could lead to the whole collapse of the food chain. Carbon in the atmosphere is also causing sea level to rise and many of our costal cities and islands are excepted to be underwater by 2050 or sooner.
I totally agree with you. Us humans have caused so much damage to our planet in such a short period of time. The increase of Co2 and because our ocean takes up most of the earths surface, it has became more acidic for the past years and many sea creatures are endangered and are slowly going to be extinct and die if we don't do something about it and fast. Sea creatures that builds shells and skeletons like sea urchins, crabs, coral, scallops and mussels are the ones that are affected the most as they wont have the enough nutrients to build the shells because of how acidic the ocean is. If one species gets extinct, it may affect the food chain. Us humans have all contributed to damaging our planet. Therefore in my opinion, us humans as a community should come up with a good, reasonable and efficient way to save our planet together.