Many people have become too focused on the effects that carbon dioxide emissions have on global warming, and have forgotten the many other negative consequences of this pollutant. The massive amounts of carbon dioxide humans put into the atmosphere each year have dire effects on human health. These carbon emissions also have a large impact on the world’s oceans – affecting ocean acidity and having drastic consequences for marine life.
Carbon Emissions Lead to Ocean Acidification
The ocean is important to the carbon cycle and has absorbed about half of the carbon emissions created by humans since the Industrial Revolution. This absorbed carbon dioxide affects ocean chemistry, which in turn affects marine life. As Marah Hardt and Carl Safina describe in the June 24, 2008 Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media article “Covering Ocean Acidification: Chemistry and Considerations” the ocean has a pH of 8.06, making it slightly alkaline. However, carbon dioxide [CO2] reacts with seawater [H2O] to create carbonic acid [H2CO3]. This reaction releases hydrogen ions [H+] which makes the ocean more acidic. The acidity of a solution is measured using the pH scale, which measures the amount of hydrogen ions [H+] in a solution.
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