Listen to Episode Here

Show Notes

The increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is doing more than just warming the planet and threatening the lives of many terrestrial species. A large percentage of that carbon is actually reabsorbed by the oceans, causing a phenomenon known as ocean acidification — that is, our carbon emissions are literally changing the chemistry of ocean water and threatening ocean ecosystems worldwide. On Not Cool episode 21, Ariel is joined by Libby Jewett, founding Director of the Ocean Acidification Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who explains the chemistry behind ocean acidification, its impact on animals and plant life, and the strategies for helping organisms adapt to its effects. She also discusses the vulnerability of human communities that depend on marine resources, the implications for people who don't live near the ocean, and the relationship between ocean acidification and climate change.

Topics discussed include:

• Chemistry of ocean acidification
• Impact on animals and plant life
• Coral reefs
• Variation in acidification between oceans
• Economic repercussions
• Vulnerability of resources and human communities
• Global effects of ocean acidification
• Adaptation and management
• Mitigation
• Acidification of freshwater bodies
• Geoengineering

References discussed include:

• NOAA's National Coral Reef Monitoring Program
• Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2009
• Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network
• Al Gore: The Climate Crisis Is the Battle of Our Time, and We Can Win

The oceans actually now, just in general, hold 70 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere.The modeling studies that have been done have projected out that the oceans actually could continue to absorb, even as the last fossil fuels are being burned. That's a lot of carbon dioxide.

~ Libby Jewett