It’s a topic that will effect many of the people that live on Cape Cod. Yet most of them don’t even know about it. Ocean Acidification. (from here)

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted to the atmosphere by human activities is being absorbed by the oceans, making them more acidic (lowering the pH the measure of acidity).

Evidence indicates that emissions of carbon dioxide from human activities over the past 200 years have already led to a reduction in the average pH of surface seawater of 0.1 units and could fall by 0.5 units by the year 2100. This pH is probably lower than has been experienced for hundreds of millennia and, critically, at a rate of change probably 100 times greater than at any time over this period.

So what? Well lets take a brief journey back to science class in high school. pH is a measure of how acid or base something is. It effects all sorts of stuff. For instance something that is very acidic could melt your skin off. Good to know. pH is measured in units. (from here)

The pH of distilled water is 7, this is neutral. Any solution with a pH below 7 (i.e. pH 1.0 to pH 6.9) is an acid and any solution with a pH above 7 (i.e. pH 7.1 to pH 14) is an alkali.

Acidic solutions have a pH between 1 and 6.9 === your stomach contains HCl it is pH2.

Alkaline solutions have a pH between 7.1 and 14. === your small intestine is pH 9.

Neutral solutions are neither acidic nor alkaline so their pH is 7.

So how is the ocean getting more acidic? The ocean absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide. This is a good thing, the ocean sucks up large amounts of carbon dioxide and helps to moderate the effects of global warming. (It should be noted that ocean acidification has NOTHING to do with the global warming debate. There is no debate about weather or not the oceans are getting more acid. The debate is over what the effects will be. And most of that debate is about how bad its going to be.)

(from here)

There is an equilibrium between atmospheric CO2 and the CO2 dissolved in seawater: as atmospheric levels increase, so do the levels of CO2 dissolved in the ocean waters, especially in the surface waters where most ocean life flourishes. The dissolved CO2 reacts with the seawater to form carbonic acid (H2CO3), increasing the water acidify (i.e. reducing pH).

So what does this have to do with us, and what does it have to do with Cape Cod? Well many things. For one if the ocean becomes more acidic then creatures that make there shells out of calcium will no longer be able to (the shells will melt killing the creature). This includes snails, clams, oysters, quahogs, mollusks, coral and many microscopic animals. These microscopic creatures form the bases for the food chain in the ocean. Without these creatures it is unclear what most larger fish and whales would eat. There is the potential for a massive extinction level event.

Cape Cod’s local economy has a lot to do with shell fish, fishing, whale watching, and beach tourism. No one is going to want to come to an ocean devoid of life and stinking with rot. Fishermen will not be able to catch dead fish, forget about the clam bake. Not to mention that most of the worlds oxygen comes from microscopic plants that live in the ocean. (its unclear what high acid levels would do to these plants, but the possibility is there for disaster)

Even people who do not believe that our carbon rich lifestyle has anything to do with global warming should still be concerned with ocean acidification. (from here)

A new study by an international team of oceanographers published in Nature on September 29, 2005 reports that ocean acidification could result in corrosive chemical conditions that would be reached much sooner than previously thought. Within 50 to 100 years, there could be severe consequences for marine calcifying organisms, which build their external skeletal material out of calcium carbonate, the basic building block of limestone. Most threatened are cold-water calcifying organisms, including sea urchins, cold-water corals, coralline algae, and plankton known as pteropods–winged snails that swim through surface waters.

Its vitally important that we as Cape Codders take measures to stop this process. The biggest single source of carbon in the world is the United States. And the biggest source of Carbon dioxide in America is from burning fossil fuels used for transportation and for energy needs. Here on Cape Cod we can help lower these sources by doing several simple things.

We can install and use renewable energy. This includes wind farms, wind turbines, solar panels, and solar thermal panels. We can drive fuel efficient cars, and start using bio-fuels like biodiesel. We can vote for people that support these things. We can reduce our use of energy by becoming more energy efficient. This includes simple things like using compact fluorescent light bulbs, and more complicated things like insulating our homes.

We can start making changes that will effect the amount of carbon dioxide that is put into the air, and by proxy into the sea. Its up to us, as one of the first to be effected by these ocean changes, it is up to us to be the first to fight against them.