Acidic Oceans
Armed with test strips and color-coded charts, aquarium enthusiasts carefully follow an elementary rule: Watch your pH. But the pH of our oceans has been carelessly tipped off-kilter, and the resulting environmental changes can cause immense harm.

By Patrick Dougherty

    Environmentalists decry the carbon-based power surge that started with the Industrial Revolution and has mushroomed into a gluttonous fossil fuel feeding frenzy. The massive outpouring of carbon dioxide exhaust from fossil fuel consumption is blamed for a number of environmental concerns, from global warming to the lesser-known but equally devastating consequence of ocean acidification.
    “Ocean acidification may present one of the gravest threats to our planet’s ecosystems and yet it is also one of the least publicized aspects of the global climate change issue,” says David E. Guggenheim, PhD, president of 1planet1ocean (www.1planet1ocean.org) and a consultant in conservation policy and science. “Ocean acidification is occurring very rapidly, causing unprecedented changes to the chemistry of the oceans.” ...

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