Why Waxman-Markey Matters to the Oceans

The sprawling Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill is headed to the full House and could be voted on as early as late June. The bill's passage would signal real progress in the fight against climate change, but it would also be a vital step in preventing global warming's terrifying cousin: ocean acidification.

As we speak, carbon emissions are changing the ocean's chemistry. Here's a quick ocean acidification primer: the oceans absorb a huge amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which reacts with sea water to produce carbonic acid, reducing the amount of available calcium carbonate that corals and marine life such as crabs, lobsters, clams and oysters depend on to produce their skeletons and shells.

Marine scientists agree that under a business-as-usual scenario, ocean acidification will be devastating for coral reefs within the next 50 years. If we don't get serious climate legislation passed very soon, by 2050 there could be no coral reefs developing anywhere in the world. No joke.

How important are coral reefs, anyway, you ask? According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, coral reefs support more species per unit area than any other marine environment. As the "rainforests of the sea," Coral reefs provide vital economic and environmental services to millions of people around the world -- think food, tourism, erosion prevention and medicinal developments.

When most people think of carbon emissions, they picture smog-filled super-highways and melting ice caps. Yes, those images are accurate, but try this one: it's 2048 and you're snorkeling in the tropics. Something is awry. Where are all the fish, sharks and sea turtles? Why is the reef pale and dissolving? Ocean acidification has kicked in, and we could be headed for a mass extinction event.

Leading coral reef scientist J.E.N. Veron recently talked to Oceana about how dire the situation could get if nothing is done. "We are looking down the barrel of a big gun," he said, "and we are seeing the end of the Great Barrier Reef."

If we want to prevent the seven seas from becoming hot and sour soup, we need climate legislation now. At the moment, the Waxman-Markey bill, even in its compromised state, is the best chance we've got.

Comments

[guinganbresil]

Ocean acidicification causing coral bleaching is unproven.
I suspect it is more likely due to dust blown over from Africa... http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/african_dust/index.htmll)
Coral has survived much higher CO2 concentrations (and temperatures) in the past.
I am also not sure that the increase of carbonic acid would reduce the available calcium cabonate - it seems to me that calcium carbonate is formed by the reaction calcium ions in the seawater with the carbonic acid. Limestone is one result. Please correct me if I am missing something!

[GuyRC]

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/OA/

[Rhetticent]

Waxman-Markey will do nothing to help the oceans, but do wonders to provide politicians with more tax dollars to bribe us with. It will take years to wade through the regulartory process to get rules in place to actually implement the law, and by the time that's done the lobbyists will have drilled it so full of holes it will have no impact whatsoever on carbon. That's the reality of government. And meanwhile, China and India will spew more into the atmosphere, having all the manufacturing we run out of the country by increasing energy costs with more taxes.

If you're really serious about saving the oceans, back something that will work NOW: convert all autos and light trucks to CNG immediately. That will have drastically more effect on your GHG's than Waxman-Markey ever will, and it will save jobs and keep money at home. Insistence on a government solution makes your puported ecological commitment suspect.

[conserv47]

global warming???? I thought that it was climate change now lol. Curiously climate models have NOT been able to predict the current cooling trend thus we should pass legislation that puts a new TAX on all Americans to 'save the planet.' Give me a break. This frakking bill does NOTHING to prevent so-called climate change. Perhaps the author should read the new NASA report which says that the Sun plays a role in climate change. How does this bill regulate the output from the Sun i wonder????

[GuyRC]

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_by_any_other_name.html

[BigFella]

Agree, global warming is killing the reefs, but two points: 1) destruction of reefs is only a part of the totality of the impact of global warming and 2) given the difficulties to get many consumers, politicians, industries and governments to recognize the significance of global warming based on what is actually visible, above the surface of the ocean, don't expect them to recognize what is happening out their sight any time soon.

But we can keep trying.

http://thebfdblog.com/2009/04/03/memo-on-global-warming/