MORE ESSENTIAL VIDEO

Ocean Acidification, ABC News (1:48)
Acid Test, Sigourney Weaver, NRDC, Trailer, Planet Green (2:13)
Acid Test, Sigourney Weaver, NRDC, All, (21:34)
 

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NUTSHELL

As Alanna Mitchell, Author of Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, explains in our video above, for most of history, life has existed only in the global ocean (only one, all connected), which makes up 99% of the living space on the planet.  Every second breath we breathe comes from plankton in the ocean.  And if all land life were to die tomorrow, ocean life could survive, but if all ocean life were to die, land life -- all of us -- would also die.

So what's the fire?

The present impacts of the ocean acidification process that's been set in motion are immense, accelerating threats RIGHT NOW, and the projected outcome of our current, carbon-intensive course is the potential collapse of ocean life within decades(!).

-- After 2 centuries of our fossil fuel addiction pumping excessive amounts of C02 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the global ocean has become saturated and is no longer able to absorb our emissions at the level necessary to maintain and regulate the safe, balanced climate we evolved in.

-- Ocean acidification and heating threaten to render the base life of the ocean food chain unable to produce protective shells and, therefore, unable to exist and absorb carbon.

-- The pH balance (acidity) of the global ocean is now lower than it's been for 65 MILLION YEARS and the protective shells of some ocean base life have ALREADY become compromised.

-- Human-induced heating of the global ocean is already changing currents and creating rapidly increasing pockets of oxygen-free dead zones where life can't survive.

-- Unsustainable overfishing and bottom trawling have depleted all species of fish.

-- Corals, home to massive and varied amounts of life, can no longer be saved.

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3 REALLY BIG PROBLEMS

Although the governments of the world are negotiating a new global climate agreement, there are at least 3 really big problems:

1) All targets on the table are based on, and are on the low end of, out of date science gathered by the 2007 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Report.

2) Given that what is required to confront the climate crisis are multiple, multi-pronged 'Marshall Plan/ Manhattan Project/ Apollo Program'-scale research and implementation programs and a greater than WW2-equivalent emergency global mass-mobilization at emergency speed, it should also be of considerable concern that the 2007 IPCC report upon which all international negotiations are based and limited to, does not even address the threat of ocean acidification outlined above.

3) The heating ocean has begun to release methane from sea beds, often referred to as a potential timebomb (methane compilation coming soon -- watch this video).

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DEUX EX MACHINA

If this were a movie, it would be difficult to foresee how the 'heroes' (most life on Earth) could survive such daunting obstacles without a deux ex machina -- an act of God or some unforeseen game changer, usually out of the blue with no basis for expectation.

The use of this plot device is considered poor writing because it indicates that the author was painted into a corner with no reasonable escape plan and, therefore, could not come up with a believable resolution. This is where we are now: painted into a corner with no reasonable options to ensure our survival, only EMERGENCY alternatives that must be initiated on a massive scale -- FAST.

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ESSENTIAL ARTICLES

• Warmest global ocean surface temperatures on record for July, NOAA
• Carbon emissions creating acidic oceans not seen in 65 million years, The Guardian
• Oceans acidifying 10x faster than mass marine extinction 55 million yrs ago, CP
  
• Southern ocean close to acid tipping point (2030!), ABC
• Ocean acidity 20 x worse than previosly thought, The Guardian
• Ocean 10 x less effective at absorbing CO2 emitted by human activity, Science Daily
• Proof on the half shell: a more acidic ocean corrodes sea life, Scientific American
• Acidic oceans new carbon threat of "a marine Armageddon", Adelaide Now
• Oxygen-starved oceans rapidly dying, Canberra Times
• Scientists say world's coral reefs doomed, UPI
• Warmer seas will wipe out plankton, source of ocean life, The Independent
• Ocean dead zones to expand, remain for thousands of years, Climate Progress
  

MORE

• Alanna Mitchell - Website
• Alanna Mitchell - Bio
• Alanna Mitchell - Sea Sick
• Wikipedia - Ocean Acidification
• Wikepedia - Dead Zones
• Wikepedia - Corals
• National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• ecoSanity - Phytoplankton compilation - Global emergency now: mass base life die-off (40% since 1950!) threatens survival of most life on Earth
  
• ecoSanity - Climate Emergency: Race 2 Survival (R2S) Campaign