[Vision2020] Ocean Acidification & CO2 Emissions: Documentary Showing August, 2009, on Discovery Planet Green

[Ted Moffett]

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dhinerfeld/ocean_acidification_the_scarie.html

by Daniel Hinerfeld:

I've had the privilege over the last several months to write, co-direct and
executive produce a startling half-hour documentary featuring Sigourney
Weaver. ACID TEST explores the impending catastrophe of ocean acidification
-- which scientists call the OTHER carbon problem.  (The first being global
warming.)

The word "startling" above is not hype.  Ocean acidification seems to be the
best kept secret in environmental science despite that it may, in a matter
of a few decades, devastate our oceans.  Although I've worked at NRDC for
six years (and covered environmental issues as a reporter for years before
that) I knew virtually nothing about ocean acidification before NRDC Films
began making the movie in conjunction with Lisa
Suatoni<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lsuatoni/>,
a scientist in NRDC's ocean's program.

That goes for most of the people I know: the organic food eating, Prius
driving, urban professionals whom one expects to be well aware of every
looming environmental crisis.

That knowledge gap seems particularly weird once you start talking to the
scientists who work on this issue.  They are FREAKED OUT.   They are so
alarmed about what the future holds for the oceans (if we don't change our
carbon emitting ways) that they seem to be losing a battle against despair.

There ARE solutions, of course, but first, here's a basic explanation of
ocean acidification: The atmosphere touches the ocean over about 70% of
Earth's surface, so a significant percentage of the carbon dioxide we emit
by burning fossil fuels ultimately mixes with ocean water.  That interaction
produces carbonic acid.  The more CO2 we put into the atmosphere, the more
CO2 ends up in the ocean and the higher ocean acidity goes.

The models show that unless we significantly cut CO2 emissions, ocean
acidity will double compared to pre-industrial times by the end of the
century.  As NRDC's Lisa Suatoni says in the film with characteristic
understatement: "That is a big problem."

It's a big problem because it will mean that water in large parts of the
ocean will be so acidic as to be corrosive to shells.   That includes the
"shellfish," which probably first come to mind (lobsters, shrimp, crabs,
etc.), but perhaps more significant, the small, shelled creatures such as
plankton and corals that help form the foundation of the ocean food web.

What happens if thousands of shelled species can't build their shells?
Scientists aren't entirely sure, but the likely scenario isn't pretty. (To
learn more about acidification, check out this NRDC web
page<http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/acidification/default.asp>
.)

So if ocean acidification is about to kill off our coral reefs and
contribute significantly to an unraveling of the ocean food web (an
unraveling that could have huge implications for how the human race feeds
itself), how come you've never heard of it before? What explains that
knowledge gap between the scientific community and the light green world of
average environmentally conscious citizens?

Part of the answer seems to be that there was a peculiar, collective lapse
on the part of the scientific community.  Although the chemistry of ocean
acidification is quite straightforward and has been understood for many
decades, it was only about five years ago that scientists started to think
rigorously about the biology. Until then, they hadn't considered what
rapidly rising acidity would mean for life in the ocean.

One theory I've heard to explain that lapse is that scientists have been
preoccupied with global warming, and since the ocean's ability to absorb
carbon dioxide actually slows the pace of global warming, the fact that
large amounts of CO2 were going into the ocean was considered (at least in a
superficial way) a GOOD thing.  Were it not for the ocean absorbing about a
quarter of the CO2 we've emitted since the industrial revolution (and
otherwise keeping the planet cool), Earth would already have the climate now
predicted for 2050.

Add to the mix the fact that ocean issues are generally out of sight and
therefore out of mind, and you see how we got to this weird point at which
even opinion leaders are almost totally unaware of one of the most grave and
immediate environmental threats we face.

My hope is that our new film, ACID TEST, will help get us out of that
situation; that it will help to put ocean acidification at the top of the
agenda. Not just the agenda at ocean policy conferences, but at the dinner
tables of all those Whole Food shopping, bike commuting urban professionals
I know whose engagement is vital if we're to have any hope of getting out of
this mess.

And there IS a way out of this mess if we act quickly.  The most important
step is to accelerate our transition to a new energy economy.  We simply
need to power our lives without emitting huge quantities of CO2.  But we can
also help the ocean defend itself against the twin attacks of global warming
and ocean acidification by making sure its systems are as healthy as
possible.  That's why marine protected areas (like national parks in the
ocean) and sustainable fishing practices are so important.

So is there hope?

Well, as Bruce Steele, a fisherman we interviewed for ACID TEST says wisely
at the end of the film: "I have hope.  You can't fish and not have hope."

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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