Science
Related: About this forumThe Last Time Oceans Got This Acidic This Fast, 96% of Marine Life Went Extinct
The biggest extinction event in planetary history was driven by the rapid acidification of our oceans, a new study concludes. So much carbon was released into the atmosphere, and the oceans absorbed so much of it so quickly, that marine life simply died off, from the bottom of the food chain up.
That doesnt bode well for the present, given the disturbingly similar rate that our seas are acidifying right now. Parts of the Pacific, for instance, are already so acidic that sea snails shells begin dissolving as soon as theyre born.
The biggest die-off in history, the Permian Extinction event, aka the Great Dying, extinguished over 90 percent of the planet's speciesand 96 percent of marine species. A lot of theories have been put forward about why and how, exactly, the vast majority of Earth life went belly up 252 million years ago, but the new study, published in Science, offers some compelling evidence acidification was a key driver.
A team led by University of Edinburgh researchers collected rocks in the United Arab Emirates that were on the seafloor hundreds of millions of years ago, and used the boron isotopes found within to model the changing levels of acidification in our prehistoric oceans. Through this combined geochemical, geological, and modeling approach, the scientists say, they were able to accurately model the series of perturbations that unfolded in the era.
more
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-last-time-our-oceans-got-this-acidic-it-drove-earths-greatest-extinction
daleanime
(17,796 posts)ms liberty
(8,609 posts)Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)252 million years ago? I knew the DICK Cheney was old, but wow!
Isn't there something good we can add to absorb the acid? Again we've known about this for years. Hasn't anybody come up with a solution?
n2doc
(47,953 posts)We know how to do that. We could do so if most people cared more than about the next 30 seconds ahead of them.
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)It is the quarterly earnings report that corporations care about. Anything more than 90 days out is irrelevant.
ffr
(22,674 posts)Can't see the bottom. It gets too dark, like a well you can't see the bottom to.
Enough of us know what the problem is in our environment. We know that we're contributing to it, at the very least and are the driving force most likely. But without a concerted global effort, no matter how much some of us do to reverse our polluting ways, we keep slipping farther down this chute and it keeps getting darker and darker.
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)When I was a teenager, one of my first jobs was working at a little pet shop/tropical fish store in Seattle near the U-district. I saw first hand when too many hamsters or gerbils were put in one cage. All hell broke loose.
That's what's now happening to our planet.
I presently live within sight of one of the world's most beautiful cities: Victoria, BC. And yet, this pristine city with its gardens, horse-drawn carriages, double-decker buses and British charm has a really nasty, little secret.
Victoria's Secret:
Victoria pumps an average of 130 million litres of raw sewage daily into waters just off Victorias harbour. It is pumped into the ocean through two one-meter wide pipes 60 and 65 meters under the surface by twin 1000 horsepower motors.
Yup..raw, untreated sewage with all the other goodies and pollutants that come with it, is spewing into the Straits Of Juan de Fuca.
1915 practices in the year 2015.
Greater Victoria with a population of almost 350,000 people. What a bunch of shit...
Victoria's Secret: Dumping Raw Sewage Like It's 1915
http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/01/26/Victoria-Raw-Sewage-Dumping/