Who knew that our carbon emissions could have such a drastic effect on sea-life? Rising CO2 emissions have dissolved in the ocean to form carbonic acid. Because of this, the oceans are acidifying at the fastest rate since over sixty-five million years ago. Now the fish have more to worry about than overfishing and habitat loss. This acidification of the water can harm baby clown-fish by messing up their orientation and sense of smell. This would lead them to get eaten by other fish more easily. Also, it softens the shells of oysters and other crustaceans which means their defenses are lowered. So far, there isn't any solution to how we're going to solve this problem, but the best we can do as of now is to just keep our carbon footprint under control.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Who knew that our carbon emissions could have such a drastic effect on sea-life? Rising CO2 emissions have dissolved in the ocean to form carbonic acid. Because of this, the oceans are acidifying at the fastest rate since over sixty-five million years ago. Now the fish have more to worry about than overfishing and habitat loss. This acidification of the water can harm baby clown-fish by messing up their orientation and sense of smell. This would lead them to get eaten by other fish more easily. Also, it softens the shells of oysters and other crustaceans which means their defenses are lowered. So far, there isn't any solution to how we're going to solve this problem, but the best we can do as of now is to just keep our carbon footprint under control.
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I did one of mine on this too. You would think that if we know about this that we would start to take action and figure out what to do to stop it from increasing and to save the fish and wildlife because it could ruin the oceans.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carley. Most people are completely unaware of issues like these. They think that these things are completely irrelevant to their daily lives. Thoughts like those are selfish. Especially to people like me who care greatly about the ocean and the organisms living in it. This issue alone makes me want to reduce my carbon use because I want to spend my life studying coral reefs. In order for this dream to come true there actually have to be reefs left.
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