The changes being observed [in ocean acidity] are beginning to disrupt the ability of any organism to make shells out of calcium carbonate. Organisms that do this include corals, crabs, lobsters, small creatures vital to the diet of fish and plankton...
Video (3 min.) of U.S. Rep. Jay Insleemaking a statement on global climate change science Statement made in a December 2, 2009, governmental hearing. Two other videos (7 min.) referred to in the article included below can be viewed here and here.
In its statement, "Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the challenge of climate change", the Bahá'í International Community wrote (2008):
[T]he search for solutions to climate change has revealed the limits of traditional technological and policy approaches. ... [They] have brought us...the [tremendous] opportunity to take the next step in the transition from a state-centered mode of interacting on the world stage to one rooted in the unity which connects us as the inhabitants of one biosphere, the citizens of one world and the members of one human civilization. ... Source: BIC Statements
Regarding the hacked emails that stirred controversy recently over the science of climate change (more on that here):
[Mr. Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate official] said the emails hacked from the British university fuelled scepticism... [Yet he] defended the rigorous review process by some 2,500 scientists of climate change research as solid and thorough.
Whoever leaked that clutch of Climategate emails last month... has unleashed upon the rest of us the phenomenon of the born-again climate sceptic, the kind of man...that...has been having second thoughts about climate change. My first instinct is always to humour him... My follow-up question is this: "Do you know that climate change is not the only reason to be uneasy about carbon emissions?" ... Ocean acidification has been quite scandalously left out of the reckoning in the past few weeks. I am not for a moment belittling the science behind man-made global warming. ... That levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are rising is not disputed. ... We know the ocean absorbs about 25% of the carbon dioxide we emit each year. This CO2 dissolves through wind and wave action to form carbonic acid. This is altering the chemistry of the seas in ways that are not disputed and are far simpler to understand than the effect the same pollutants are having on the atmosphere. I recommend the startling practical demonstration on YouTube of what acidity will do to the oceans given by Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...this month. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in about 1750, sea water acidity has increased by 30%. The speed and degree of this change are faster than anything that had happened for 55m (million) years. The changes being observed are beginning to disrupt the ability of any organism to make shells out of calcium carbonate. Organisms that do this include corals, crabs, lobsters, small creatures vital to the diet of fish and plankton... Projections show that by 2060, given the current rate of fossil-fuel emissions, sea water acidity could have increased by 120%. Lubchenco showed Congress a scary picture of what a shell would look like if it had spent a month in water as acidic as this. The shell had begun to dissolve. Such an effect could trigger a chain of reactions through entire ecosystems, from whales to fish and shellfish, with huge implications for economies and wildlife. It could even stop the sea absorbing as much carbon dioxide as it does now, accelerating global warming. ... Predictably, the science of ocean acidification, which is accepted by governments on both sides of the Atlantic, does not go uncontested by the global warming sceptics. They say you can't acidify the ocean because it washes over alkaline rocks. This process of weathering rocks is indeed how the alkalinity of the ocean will recover, but leading scientists say it will take hundreds of thousands of years. At the unprecedented speed that acidification is happening, the marine organisms will be knocked out before the rocks can dilute the acid [no reference here - A.]. There is plenty we still need to know about the acidification of the ocean. However, it looks as if unpleasant things start to happen if we go beyond 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (bear in mind we reached 390ppm earlier this year). That is, coincidentally, the threshold for holding the Earth's average temperature rise down to a relatively "safe" 2C. So ocean acidification, which people are beginning to call climate change's "evil twin", may be an even more pressing reason to move to a low-carbon economy than climate change itself. ... Source: timesonline.co.uk
"In this Day the secrets of the earth are laid bare before the eyes of men. The pages of swiftly-appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world[,] endowed with hearing, sight and speech. This is an amazing and potent phenomenon." - Bahá'u'lláh, ToB 39
This blog attempts to identify spiritual aspects of the reality we inhabit. It is dedicated to the exemplary life of the towering Figure of the Age, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. I appreciate your comments! - Alex
I have a degree in the Arabic language, as well as CELTA (English teaching) certification. I teach English in Ho Chi Minh City (previously Oslo) and have been a Baha'i since 1990. Contact form: http://is.gd/5nYHY (or post a comment on the blog).
Header photo is of Bahá’u’lláh's room in His house in Takur, kept in its original condition (destroyed by the Iranian government in 1981). I chose it for the spirit of simplicity in worldly affairs that it encapsulates, and the corresponding room for expression of spiritual qualities it would allow. Both header photo, that of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and of Bahá'í "Lotus" Temple are copyright Bahá'í International Community.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment