Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Environment

Clarion Call For Marine Life

Global CO2 emissions must be cut enough to halt ocean acidification, science panel warns

by Cheryl Hogue
June 8, 2009 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 87, Issue 23

At Risk
[+]Enlarge
Credit: Russ Hopcroft/UAF/NOAA
Limacina helicina, a planktonic mollusk eaten by Pacific salmon, is threatened by ocean acidification.
Credit: Russ Hopcroft/UAF/NOAA
Limacina helicina, a planktonic mollusk eaten by Pacific salmon, is threatened by ocean acidification.

The new climate-change treaty being negotiated this year must cut carbon dioxide emissions enough to protect oceans from increasing acidity, says the Interacademy Panel on International Issues, a global network of scientific academies.

The panel, which includes the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, says the only practical way to limit the increasing acidity of oceans is to curb atmospheric CO2, a key greenhouse gas. The panel is calling for global CO2 emissions to be lowered to at least 50% of 1990 levels by 2050 and continued reductions thereafter.

The cuts the panel is advocating are close to what some industrialized countries have proposed. For instance, President Barack Obama wants to lower U.S. emissions to approximately 83% below 2005 levels by 2050.

Oceans absorb about a quarter of the CO2 produced by human activity. Rising CO2 emissions since the Industrial Revolution have lowered the pH of the world's oceans from about 8.2 to 8.1. The falling pH, the panel says, can have profound consequences for marine life, especially those that need calcium carbonate to grow—such as coral and mollusks—and species that feed on them, including fish.

Computer models suggest that the world's coral reefs and polar ecosystems will be seriously harmed by ocean acidification by 2050 if CO2 emissions are not curtailed, the panel says.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.