Coastal Post Online
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS
MONTHLY - FREE PRESS
(415)868-1600 -
(415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
November, 2004
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A Million Tons Of CO2 An Hour
Global Warming Will Kill The Ocean
By Jim Scanlon
Right
now, excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is
entering our oceans at the astounding rate of 1 million metric tons per hour.
Since the first measurements of CO2 build up in the oceans 25 years ago, the
signal has become large and clear. The accumulated burden of fossil fuel CO2 is
now estimated at 400 billion metric tons! The signal is detectable world wide
to a depth of 1,000 meters.
As every effort is made to seize, exploit and expand the production of what
remains of the earth's fossil hydrocarbons to fuel the relentless growth of
industrial and commercial economies of consumption and waste, another aspect of
CO2 pollution of our atmosphere presents the dismal prospect of sick and dying
oceans --- 70% of our blue planet.
The British Royal Society recently launched an independent study of the
effects of increasing acidification on marine biota which it says could lead
over this century to an ocean more acid than at any time in the last 300
million years.
Measurements show clearly that oceans are shifting towards acid. What
effects this might have on all aquatic life --- everything in the oceans --- is
unknown. This giga-problem is distinct and different from that of acid rain, a
mega-problem, which has damaged human lungs and forests and also destroyed or
damaged virtually all aquatic life in northern lakes in the eastern US, Canada and Scandinavia. Acid rain (wet) and acid deposition (dry) are caused mostly by sulfur and
nitrogen emissions, byproducts of burning hydrocarbons to generate
electricity, that is, smoking smokestacks.
The present administration of the US has a policy of preemptive, or
preventive, war to strike at any potential threat posed by a perceived
ideological enemy. This policy has been summarized as, "If we wait for a
'smoking gun' we may get a 'mushroom cloud'"! That is, if we wait for
undeniable evidence, the "smoking gun", we invite disaster.
No such policy exists to confront environmental threats such as CO2
emissions. Clear evidence of harm must be convincingly demonstrated before any
attempt to act. In other words, "smoking guns" are insufficient
making environmental mushroom clouds a necessity.
Warming The Atmosphere
Carbon dioxide released as a result of human activities is responsible for
about 50% of the excess heat that is trapped in our lower atmosphere. Since the
industrial revolution in the mid 19th Century, the burning of coal, oil and
natural gas have raised levels of CO2 gradually. More CO2 causes more heat from
the sun to be retained in the lower atmosphere. More heat means there is more
energy in the atmosphere, which changes our weather and local climates
worldwide. One recent example: warmer tropical ocean water intensifies
hurricanes. Climate warming however, is more evident at high, sub polar
latitudes, where, as reflective ice and snow disappear, or come later and leave
earlier, more heat from the sun is absorbed by the less reflective earth, and
the warming cycle intensifies.
The average increase in the earth's temperature, when presented as a
number, seems ridiculously small, or just ridiculous. The average may be less
than one degree Centigrade but the environmental effects so far, have been
pronounced and obvious in continental sub arctic environments, especially Alaska.
Cooling The Stratosphere
CO2 (and other industrial greenhouse gases) which warm the lower atmosphere,
keep heat from reaching the upper atmosphere. A cooler stratosphere leads to
the formation of ice and acid ice, which facilitate the rapid destruction of
the ozone layer. Naturally produced ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation and
warms the stratosphere. Therefore, if there is less ozone, ultraviolet is not blocked,
there is no warming, and it gets colder. Colder temperatures leads to even
less ozone, and so on, as cycle of ozone destruction intensifies.
In this way, the expensive, hard won benefits of the Montreal Protocol are
being negated by the cooling produced by global warming. When ice and acid
hydrates form in the stratosphere, smaller amounts of chlorine produce just as
much damage as larger amounts without ice. When the temperature of the Arctic
stratosphere gets cold enough for ice, ozone holes form. This is based on
observations, not computer simulations. The Arctic stratosphere needs to get
just a few degrees colder with some regularity, for hundreds of millions of
northern Europeans to be exposed to much higher levels of ultraviolet B radiation.
Towards Sour Oceans
What has been happening is that the oceans have so far protected our
atmosphere by absorbing excess CO2 without too much of an observable effect ---
but, that is changing and there is reasonable fear of what will happen as the
chemistry of our ocean ecosystems change drastically.
All creatures that live in the sea are vulnerable to acidification, but
especially those that form shells, like plankton and corals. Although tropical
rain forests are often referred to as "the lungs of our atmosphere",
for the oxygen they produce and the CO2 they remove from circulation, the vast
swarms of single celled photosynthetic plants that live in the oceans might
more accurately be called the "lungs" of the earth. That's where the
oxygen comes from.
A summary of the challenge of increasing CO2 in the oceans appeared in EOS,
the official newspaper of the American Geophysical Union and was signed by
prominent scientists, including Ralph Cicerone the Chairman of the University of California at Irvine, and Peter Brewer of the Monterey Bay Research Institute.
Also signing were scientists from France, Germany, Norway, Japan and Chile. The problem was also discussed at an international meeting in Paris last spring.
The admittedly imperfect Kyoto agreement to make modest reductions in
emissions of CO2 (5%), seems certain to be ratified by the major industrialized
nations this year --- with the exception of the US. Under Kyoto temperatures
would still rise 2 to 5 degrees centigrade with sea levels rising 1 to 3 feet
over the rest of the century, but it would prevent even worse damage and allow
a breathing space .
The millions of tons of carbon that are entering our oceans every hour were
put away, stored, banked if you will, hundreds of millions of years ago.
Every hour we are gouging out megatons of coal, pumping millions of barrels oil
and piping billions of cubic feet of gas to our engines where they are burned.
The residue of these fires is smothering our planet and we are transfixed,
unable to change before the inevitable.