The real danger is not global warming but ocean acidification, which goes hand in hand with rising CO2 levels. CO2 is mildly acidic when it dissolves in water, and may well have caused catastrophic ecological damage in the past. Phytoplankton, which sit at the base of most of the oceans food chains uses CO2 in combination with dissolved Calcium to make it microscopic sized shells. When they die these shells fall to the bottom of the ocean and form limestone/chalk deposits, locking up the CO2 they contain. However, the number of phytoplankton in the sea depends on more than available CO2 so there is the possibility that, if CO2 levels rise enough, the amount of dissolved CO2 could outpace the rate at which the phytoplankton locks it up so much that the sea turns very slightly acidic. Though wed hardly notice the change, the phytoplankton would. Their chalky shells, though formed from CO2, begin to dissolve in the acid. If the phytoplankton die, the fish, anemones and other sea creatures that live on them die. If they die the other fish, sharks, whales etc that feed on them die and so on. Massive ecological collapse on a scale weve never seen. Meanwhile with the phytoplankton we lost one of the biggest carbon sinks on the planet. CO2 levels rise dramatically and the atmosphere may become unbreathable (without a respirator). And global warming that makes anything so far predicted look like an Arctic winter by comparison.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:34:29 +0000
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