Climate Change and the Oceans

Oceans are my biggest worry. Covering 70% of the earth’s surface, oceans absorb a huge amount of CO2.  A few chemical processes later and we have ocean acidification, scourge of coral reefs and who knows what else.  We’re not sure what else, but such quick change will surely challenge the capacity of sea life to adapt. Evolution’s not used to working on such short  time scales.

So what are the options (in addition to doing whatever to reduce GHGs and mitigate climate change)?

We have geoengineering – basically adding stuff to the oceans to increase pH, reducing acidification.  Like adding iron to stimulate phytoplankton, which consume CO2. Problem is, the risks are immense. As  Zhang et al (2014) put it:

“Less is known of the oceans than the far side of the Moon. Initiating a change in the basic lowest level food web member (the plankton) will certainly have impacts throughout the whole ecology of the ocean.”

And we don’t know what that impact would be. Which is not to say not to try…but to be very, very careful.

What else? Stay tuned.

Reference:

Zhang Z, Moore JC, Huisingh D, Zhao Y, Review of Geoengineering Approaches to Mitigating Climate Change, Journal of Cleaner Production (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.076.

 

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