Brian Faraira
Ocean Acidification
Water is essential to life everywhere, but what would happen if water were turned into poison. Oceans around the world are becoming more and more acidic due to the mistakes of humanity. Due to the rise of fossil fuels and new technology, carbon emissions worldwide have been increasing which is leading to acidification in oceans. We need to put a halt to carbon emissions if we hope to help the poor marine life in the ocean. One the ocean becomes to acidic then many changes will happen to marine life and some species of marine life may go extinct.
Oceanic acidification happens when the carbon that humans put into the air is absorbed into the ocean. Once the carbon is absorbed, it is turned into carbonic acid. Once a large amount of acid is mixed into the ocean, the the ph level of the water drops making it harder for marine life to survive. Imagine living and breathing poison everyday until you died. That’s what it’s like for the aquatic life in the ocean due the ph levels. Though not all species are affected by acidification, marine life with shells will most likely die off from acidification. Once one species dies off the entire food web suffers.
Acidification is not a small scale issue that affects one area, it affects oceans around the world. It can lead to difficulty in the growth of coral and it can affect the development of fish eggs. Marine life that doesn’t mind the low ph levels will still be affected by the changes to the environment. Studies have shown that marine life affected by acidification shows riskier behaviors and is 5 to 9 times more likely to be killed in the ocean. THis could change the entire food web becuase a slight disturbance in one species can spiral into a grand disaster worldwide for all species if it isn’t taken care of fast enough.
In order to save oceanic life in the future we need to reduce the amount of carbon emitted. We need to find alternative fuels other than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels can be one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions. We could limit ourselves to green energy like solar powered energy and we should use less platic in our daily lives. Conserving water can also reduce greenhouse gasses beacuse it takes a lot of energy to pump and heat water everyday. All of these are major factors that contribute to our carbon footprints, and they’re all easy to overcome.
Questions:
What else can you do in order to help stop large amounts of carbon from being absorbed into the ocean?
What can the goverment do in order to lower carbon admissions?
Do you think that humans can work together to help lower carbon emissions?
Sources
https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F
https://usa.oceana.org/effects-ocean-acidification-marine-species-ecosystems
http://therevolutionmovie.com/index.php/open-your-eyes/ocean-acidification/solutions/
http://therevolutionmovie.com/index.php/open-your-eyes/ocean-acidification/solutions/
https://usa.oceana.org/effects-ocean-acidification-marine-species-ecosystems
http://therevolutionmovie.com/index.php/open-your-eyes/ocean-acidification/solutions/
http://therevolutionmovie.com/index.php/open-your-eyes/ocean-acidification/solutions/
18 comments:
To help lower carbon, people can switch from gas cars to electric, though at this moment it could be too expensive to. In areas that have an abundant amount of public transportation, such as large cities, then people can use that as transportation more often. Since we live in a city that relies on private transportation, it will be difficult to reduce carbon personally. But, we can help by spreading the message of how excess carbon can affect the ocean. In fact, ocean acidification affects our coral reefs. It kills them and thus removes the habitat of the fish living in the coral. If we spread this message, we can reduce the carbon emissions from factories and fossil fuels, which contributes a lot. This would then help slow ocean acidification.
In order to lower carbon, we need to cut down on machinery that emits carbon dioxide. These include gas cars, busses, trains and even lawnmowers. Another way to reduce our carbon footprint is to watch our own diets, since even eating meat could contribute to the amount of carbon in the air. This may be difficult, but it could be done if we work together, and working together is possible. In fact, working together is what will help us improve our oceans and what we have done to them. An important part of improving our oceans is government regulation. The government can place restrictions on the amount of carbon dioxide released during manufacturing and other harmful behaviors. With all of these solutions, we can work together to save our oceans and ocean life from ocean acidification.
To lower carbon levels in the ocean, humans need to limit products that give off the gas. Pollution from cars, trains, and factories can be regulated to lower the levels. The government can set these regulations. With cars naturally becoming more fuel efficient, they can set goals for companies to meet with criteria such as going electric or producing the least amount of carbon into the atmosphere when being used. Humans definitely have the capability to work together to solve this problem. There are great minds that if put together, can produce new inventions and/or methods to reduce carbon emissions.
Yet another reason we need to find a way to reduce our carbon footprint. Switching from gas to electric or from fossil fuels to renewable energy has to happen in order for us to stop this problem in the future, but this issue might be too far gone for us to only change our methods. We need to find alternative carbon pools until we can get our consumption issue dealt with. Changing the entire worlds energy methods isn’t going to change overnight, so we need something to hold us over while we make changes. Without alternative places for carbon to go, our oceans and atmosphere will continue to be bombarded with unwanted carbon that destroys it.
To lower large amounts of carbon in the ocean, humans can start to use electric cars or limit themselves of not using transportation such as cars, train, or boats. In order to lower carbon admissions, the government can introduce laws to limit the usage of cars, or during manufacturing at a factory. I believe humans could work together to help lower carbon emissions by limiting themselves or creating new innovations where it could be used as eco-friendly, and be able to help the ocean from the carbon dioxide.
I think we should educate more people about ocean acidification and allow it to have more news coverage. These human mistakes are mostly caused by industries who are aware of what they’re doing to the environment, but choose to ignore it and continue in pursuit for profit. Through large protest, we can get them to change, which is only possible if we are all educated and aware about ocean acidification.
In order to lower the amount of carbon in the ocean, humans can switch to using clean energy, solar panels on houses, electric cars, or even using reusable bags to cut down on plastic. The government can introduce laws for companies to use clean energy that will help the environment in the long run. Humans can definitely work together to reduce carbon emissions and be more eco-friendly, and live in a sustainable way.
By switching to more practical modes of transportation such as using public transport, carpooling, or simply walking we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we emit onto the atmosphere. Another possible solution is to switch from fossil fueled cars to electrical cars that are more sustainable and don’t release carbon dioxide. Aside from this, raising awareness of the damage the excess of carbon is doing to the environment can help motivate other to do changes in their lives that will help save ecosystems in the ocean
In order to reduce carbon emissions, it is crucial that humans begin to shift their use away from fossil fuels and instead focus on expanding renewable energy use. By now, there has been detrimental impacts to using fossil fuels, but there is still time to help the climate. Instead of prioritizing the economy, both average citizens and institutionalized governments must make changes to their everyday life and help reduce carbon emissions to save the ocean and prevent further acidification.
One thing I could do to help stop large amounts of carbon from being absorbed into the ocean is using less gas. I waste large amounts of gas just driving around, which is very harmful for the environment. I can also carpool more often so that less gas is used. One thing that the government could do is regulations. They could put in laws that limit people on how much gas people can use. They can also work on monitoring people’s carbon footprint. I do believe that humans can work together to help lower carbon emissions, and to help save the planet.
One thing I can do to stop taking long baths because in the passage it says that "Conserving water can also reduce greenhouse gasses beacuse it takes a lot of energy to pump and heat water everyday."This shows how conserving water and not overusing water can lead to lass carbon emissions from my house into the oceans.The government can set regulations where we cannot over shower for more than 10 minutes tops per person so this leads to less emissions.I do think that humans can work together to lower emissions and can change a lot in the world if this effort were put into play.
The solution to the mass amounts of carbonic acid in the ocean is simple: we must attack the problem like it's everything else in environmental science, at the source of human carbon emissions. Our mistakes in what we conceive on our terrestrial biomes have had a massive effect on that of marine life. In order to help these marine organisms from further suffering from our mistakes, we must implement non renewable resources. There isn’t a utopia where our carbon emitting tools in life will not be needed. For this reason, it is essential that we begin making the change and promoting the change to different forms of energy anywhere from solar to wind to hydropower. Regardless of our methods, the movement must begin to save what we are destroying.
Ocean acidification is a crisis that we must work hard towards averting. Considering that marine life can contribute about 50 to 85 percent of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, and considering we need oxygen to breathe, we have to take drastic measures to make sure ocean acidificarion is reversed. To do so, we have to reduce carbon emissions and pass strict regulations on those who pollute in oceans.
Governments need to enact policy changes, such as the Green New Deal, in order to actually combat this problem. Humans making minuscule everyday change is no longer effectual and will be negligible in the grand scheme. Fossil Fuel Industry lobbying must be ended. Ocean acidification is just one of the many consequences of our increasing carbon footprint.
I think that as one person, i can reduce the amount of carbon getting absorbed into the ocean by simply truing to use less. I will use less coal, oil, and energy in my house and all around my life. They can create and enforce laws regulating the carbon emissions created by factories and power plants. Yes, if we all as a collectible group do things in our daily lives to decrease our carbon footprint, we can make an impact on the decrease of carbon emmissions.
Humans need to be more aware of the effects they create indirectly and directly. Ocean Acidification is a huge problem that not a lot of people realize is happening. The ocean is such a critical part of our survival, and if it starts changing it will create massive consequences. To help the problem, we need to switch from gas to electric as soon as possible, but we are past the point of one person trying to make a difference; we need laws to be in place for people to listen.
One thing humans can do to reduce the amount of carbon being absorbed into the oceans is to reduce the energy that humans use that is powered by fossil fuels such as decreasing use of cars and airplanes. The government can decrease the amount of fossil fuels sold to decrease the amount of carbon sold, and if everyone works together, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere will decrease due to everyone’s efforts.
Ocean acidification sounds awful. One way I could help decrease carbon emissions is by carpooling. Although this may sound extreme, I believe a way the government could lower carbon emissions is by investing in the research of cleaner energy resources. Even though we may not be able to get rid of all carbon emissions, we could definitely decrease the rate of which we use fossil fuels.
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