Protecting what we love.

[Mike Boswell]

I'm not a scientist, but I’ve done a bit of reading about ocean acidification and damage to reefs caused by warming ocean waters. The stuff I read is very worrisome, and I wonder how many divers are aware that we could be losing much of the undersea world that we love so much.

As an example, here in California, there is a concern that warming waters will affect our magnificent kelp forests and the ecological systems that they support.

My question is, do we believe these threats are real? Do we believe they will impact us as divers? If so, what can we do about them?

For further reading: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/futureoa.html

 

[waterpirate]

My opinion is that you can not fight mother nature. Nature is constantly changing and evolving the enviroment in which we live. It is a tad bit presumptious to think that we can alter or turn back change. The fact that we have impacted the natural order or evolution of the planet goes without saying, but the only way to fix that or change it, is to evacuate the planet. Making changes to slow or draw out the proccess of things just adds a short term respite on the inevitable.
Eric

 

[adurso]

See this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pub/172704-how-about-global-warming-thing.html

Many interesting cites and real science from all sides

 

[dburg30]

The VERY FIRST statement..

The acidity of the oceans has increased since pre-industrial times and will continue to increase in coming decades, due to human-generated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions

Says a lot IMO, and the last part of that "will continue to increase due to humans" may or not be what the result would have been anyway.

I mean if it was increasing before the industrial time, what's to say it wouldnt have kept increasing humans or not??? I didnt even read the rest of it since the very first thing said seems to contradict itself..

 

[dburg30]

See this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pub/172704-how-about-global-warming-thing.html

Many interesting cites and real science from all sides

too bad that thread doesnt open for me.

 

[Mike Boswell]

too bad that thread doesnt open for me.

It's "The Pub". You have to join. Go to User CP, Group Memberships, and Join the Regulars group.

 

[Mike Boswell]

The VERY FIRST statement..



Says a lot IMO, and the last part of that "will continue to increase due to humans" may or not be what the result would have been anyway.

I mean if it was increasing before the industrial time, what's to say it wouldnt have kept increasing humans or not??? I didnt even read the rest of it since the very first thing said seems to contradict itself..

"Pre-industrial times" means before we started burning of coal and oil to power the industrial revolution. So the sentence means that acidification has increased since we started burning coal and oil, because of the increased CO2 in the atmosphere.

When CO2 dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of the water.

 

[Doc Harry]

Nothing we do to protect our oceans and our environment will amount to anything unless we focus our efforts on the root cause.

The earth's population has doubled since I was born.

What are you doing to slow the earth's population growth? How many children do you have? What are you doing to empower women's reproductive rights?

 

[Narced Out]

I was watching something about reefs the other day ago, and it said that when the water or air gets too hot above coral, the coral releases some sort of chemical to make the sky cloudy. Very interesting and only makes me wonder what we could use for that to stop this warming of the waters.

 

[drbill]

Agree on population being the source of many of our environmental, as well as societal, ills.

I have had but one child and have no plans to have another.

Anyone who seriously believes that humans have not altered the environment over the past 200 years (or the past 10,000) is not well-versed in the scientific literature. Ocean acidification is, of course, but one example. Non-natural organo-chlorinated compounds, ones not present due to natural sources, have dispersed throughout the globe due to human activities.