quote: High levels of pollution may be turning the planet's oceans acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years, with unknown consequences for future sea life, researchers said Thursday.
The acidification may be worse than during four major mass extinctions in history when natural pulses of carbon from asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions caused global temperatures to soar, said the study in the journal Science.
An international team of researchers from the United States, Britain, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands examined hundreds of paleoceanographic studies, including fossils wedged in seafloor sediment from millions of years ago.
They found only one time in history that came close to what scientists are seeing today in terms of ocean life die-off -- a mysterious period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum about 56 million years ago. ...
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Normally that would be pretty worrying, but as it is it's only kind of worrying, since this is only one more thing on top of what we've already done to bring about a looming sea biomass collapse!
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Yet another ecological problem that will no doubt be shoved under the rug by corrupt politicians in the pockets of major corporations. At this point, it all just runs together.
Posts: 87 | Registered: Dec 2011
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quote:Originally posted by ZachC: Yet another ecological problem that will no doubt be shoved under the rug by corrupt politicians in the pockets of major corporations. At this point, it all just runs together.
Hah, you're assuming that major corporations and politicians will even have to. They've already got the public well-trained to be apathetic about stuff like this.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'm sorry... what were we talking about? The oil companies just played an ad that included several small children playing with a puppy, and suddenly everything seems alright.
Posts: 87 | Registered: Dec 2011
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Just curious: Are any of the people snarking about the human condition have a particularly actionable plan for dealing with this?
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Just curious: Are any of the people snarking about the human condition have a particularly actionable plan for dealing with this?
Stop burning fossil fuels!!
Or were you looking of more detail. At this point, I think its clear to anyone who is looking honestly at the science that we have to stop adding more CO2 to the atmosphere. The longer we wait to start doing anything about it, the bigger the disaster will be for both the environment and the economy. We should have gotten serious about this at least 20 years ago.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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