Earth Equity News

Higher Acidity Found in Alaskan Waters. By Dan Joling, AP, August 24, 2009. "A marine scientist says Alaska's marine waters are turning acidic from absorbing greenhouse gases faster than tropical waters, potentially endangering Alaska's $4.6 billion fishing industry. The same things that make Alaska's marine waters among the most productive in the world -- cold, shallow depths and abundant marine life -- make them the most vulnerable to acidification, said Jeremy Mathis, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks... Alaska has already seen more than its share of global warming effects: shrinking glaciers, coastal erosion, the march north of destructive forest beetles formerly held in check by cold winters, melting Arctic Ocean ice that also threatens walrus and other marine mammals. Ocean acidification, the lowering of basicity and the increase in acidity of marine waters, is tied to increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Oceans absorb 22 million tons of carbon dioxide from human activities per day, removing 30% emitted to the atmosphere each year and mitigating the harmful impact of greenhouse gas, according to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. When carbon dioxide dissolves in sea water, it forms carbonic acid. That decreases the amount of calcium carbonate, used by marine creatures to construct shells or skeletons."