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 >
The existence of ocean acidification, and its primary cause.
The primary cause of ocean acidification would be increases in atmospheric CO2 leading to increased amounts of CO2 dissolving in the oceans and the oceans becoming more acidic. There is no potential benefit of, or positive outcome from, ocean acidification, so how can we stop this ongoing threat?
I agree with you the primary cause of ocean acidification is increases in atmospheric Co2. The average Co2 level is 408 ppm which is way more than before industrial times. Many things contribute to this the development of factories, automobiles, and other uses of burning fossil fuels for things like electricity. I believe that to stop this ongoing threat we must use renewable energy like the sun, rain, wind, and wave tides to generate electricity which can be used in our homes and in our cars. This will reduce Co2 emissions which should decrease the amount of ocean acidification. But how would we power factories that rely on fossil fuels?
Jermaine, thank you for your feedback! To answer your question, "How would we power factories that rely on fossil fuels?", I think it would be difficult but not unachievable. Fossil fuel power plants burn carbon fuels such coal, oil or gas to generate steam that drives large turbines that produce electricity, we can substitute coal, oil, and gas with Biofuel, Hydropower, Solar power, Tidal power, and or Wind power. But, a disadvantage with renewable energy is that it is difficult to generate the quantities of electricity that are as large as those produced by traditional fossil fuel generators also each type of Renewable Energy has it's own needs to properly collect heat and make electricity. So, in order for the world to run on renewable energy we would need to build lots of these power plants to produce the same amount of energy we use today.