Grey Thoughts: Ocean Acidification

9.7.08

Ocean Acidification - Propaganda and Lies
There has been a rash of discussion about Ocean Acidification due to increased CO2 concentrations, and how this will damage coral and other sea life.

William Briggs has a good discussion of how this 'new' scare tactic is just propaganda. (forgetting that the ocean is actually on the base side of the scale, and ocean 'acidification' is actually making the water more neutral)

Here’s the problem. You are a scientist, working on measuring the levels of aragonite in ocean water. It’s not very sexy and nobody beyond a small cadre seems to care. But it’s grant time and you and your team are “figuring out how to make the issue more potent” so that you can bring in the bucks.

How do you do it?

The first thing you should immediately consider these days is “turning up the heat on the issue through the media.” However, convening a press conference on “The Importance of Aragonite in Ocean Water” is unlikely to interest even the New York Times.

You need to be clever. Your job in “expanding awareness” has to start with a snappier moniker. You need a term that is “easy to comprehend” and, if you’re lucky, sounds “alarming.”

Renaming is thus “a critical step.”

Now, Jennifer Marohasy has gotten some photographic research showing teeming coral reefs and sea life right next to an almost pure CO2 source.

.

So, scare words and incorrect conclusions. Sounds like most of the global warming alarmists 'science'
- posted by Alan Grey @ Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Comments:

I'm afraid you don't make a particularly strong case for your position, that ocean acidification is "propaganda and lies." It is a much documented fact that excess carbon dioxide is dissolving into the ocean, where it forms carbonic acid, making sea water more acid than prior to the Industrial Revolution. A number of studies have shown that increased levels of carbonic acid tend, over time, to soften or dissolve the shells of certain creatures, eg. corals and molluscs: one photo is not conclusive evidence as to the health of a particular ecosystem over time. For links to scientific articles and news about ocean acidification, I invite you to visit the website for A Sea Change, the documentary Niijii Films is producing on ocean acidification.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9/7/08 11:34 am

It is a documented fact that the ocean pH is actually on the base side of the spectrum (8+), so there can be no true acidification until the pH drops below 7. Until then well known chemistry shows that adding acid (to a base) creates salt and water, and makes the ocean more neutral (less caustic).

So much for 'acidification', which if you bother reading the first article, is clearly an attempt at propaganda.

And I'll take a real world observation (observation is what they are meant to do in science) over a propaganda laden theoretical 'problem' any day of the week.

You however seem to prefer the propaganda, as your reference to 'one photo' - It's more than that if you bothered to check - and documentary creation surely shows

# posted by

Alan Grey : 11/7/08 12:15 pm

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