What the Media Doesn’t Tell Us

(About Ocean Acidification, Global Dimming and Methane)

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification, another direct effect of increasing carbon dioxide levels, is rarely mentioned in the mainstream media. Even though it threatens to cause a collapse in global fish stocks and an unprecedented shock to world food supplies.

Around half of all the carbon dioxide produced by the industrial revolution (around 525 billion tons) has been absorbed by the ocean. When dissolved in water, carbon dioxide forms a weak acid called carbonic acid. So much has been formed that the  world’s oceans are now 30 percent more acidic than prior to the industrial revolution (pH levels prior to 1990, when direct measurement started, is calculated indirectly from the oxygen content of rock formed from fossilized marine animals). Calcium carbonate, the material animals use to produce shells (and bones), dissolves in acid (we did this in sixth grade when we put a chicken bone in vinegar). And when compared to pre-industrial levels, the shell building rate of marine animals has decreased by approximately 50%.

Obviously this is a major problem for the shellfish industry. All over the world, oysters, clams and other shellfish are simply failing to reproduce. Coral reefs are also under serious threat, owing to reduced growth and “bleaching” (caused in part by warming ocean temperatures). Major coral reefs provide essential habitat for millions of other sea creatures. Marine biologists warn that if warming and increasing acidification trends continue, 95% of all living coral will be wiped out by 2050.

Perhaps even more concerning is a significant decline in plankton, the microscopic shelled creatures, fish, whales and other sea mammals consume. Even without over fishing, this has the potential to cause the world’s fish stocks to collapse over the next decade.

Is Solar Activity Increasing or Decreasing?

Climate change skeptics claim the recent increase in global temperatures relate to an increase in solar activity. This is mainly based on a recent article National Geographic by the Russian astronomer named Habibullo Abdussamatov, the head of space research at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia. Abdussamatov argues that evidence of warming on Jupiter, Pluto and Mars suggests that the sun is heating up. And that this, rather than increasing carbon dioxide levels, is responsible for increasing temperatures here on earth.

Based on my reading, Abdussamatov seems to be a minority of one. Other astronomers feel that warming on Jupiter, Pluto and Mars is much better explained by predictable fluctuations in these planets’ orbital patterns. Especially since direct measurements point to an overall reduction over the past 35 years in both sunspots and the sun’s energy output. This decline is independent of the sun’s 11 year cycles (with the last solar minimum in 1998) that Abdussamato refers to.

The Effect of Global (Solar) Dimming

The argument over solar activity is complicated by the Global Dimming effect. Global Dimming refers to a phenomenon, first observed in the 1960s, that an increase in airborne particles, mainly from industrial pollution, but also from natural sources, such as volcanoes and wildfires. Between 1960 and 1990, Global Dimming caused a 4% decrease in the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth. This, however, seemed to have a negligible effect on increasing global temperatures over that period. Then in 1990, according to Charles Long, a climate physicist at Pacific Northwest Laboratories, the trend reversed (most likely due to laws regulating and air quality). The result was a “solar brightening.” Mathematically, however, the rise in global temperatures during this period was far too large to be explained by such a small incremental change.

Methane – the Other Greenhouse Gas

There is also little mention in the mainstream media of other, much more worrying greenhouse gasses, such as nitrous oxide and methane (produced mostly via intensive and industrial farming). Nitrous oxide derives from both natural sources and over application of nitrogen fertilizers and livestock urine and feces. And methane is something we all produce from time to time – though in cows it comes out the front end (as a burp) rather than the back end. Methane is the most worrisome. Although less plentiful than CO2, it is 20 times more efficient at trapping heat. Climate scientists are particularly worried about billions of tons of methane trapped in the Siberian and Canadian sub-artic permafrost (resulting from prehistoric plants and animals trapped it in) that will be released with continued Arctic warming. (Also that this will be the Tipping Point.)

More about Long’s study at:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070312_solarsys_warming.html

Also a reader has turned me to a great site that goes through all the Climate Change Skeptic myths systematically with the evidence against them:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11462-climate-change-a-guide-for-the-perplexed.html