Chamblee54

We are pumping too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The primary source of this is use of fossil fuels. primarily coal and petroleum. Most of the attention has focused on the effect this imbalance has on the air. Informed Comment has a feature today about the effects of excess carbon dioxide on the planet’s water.
The oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As The National Science Foundation tells the tale, “The oceans act like a sponge to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the air. The gas reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid, which over time is neutralized by fossil carbonate shells on the seafloor. If too much carbon dioxide enters the ocean too quickly, it can deplete the carbonate ions that corals, mollusks and some plankton need for reef and shell-building.”
The NSF feature deals with the history of the earth over the last 300 million years. (It is noted that ” because ocean sediments older than 180 million years have been recycled back into the deep Earth, scientists have fewer records to work with.”) At various times, the carbon portion of the atmosphere has risen dramatically. The reasons are open to speculation, but many feel it was due to volcanic activity, and an asteroid collision.
“In a review of hundreds of paleoceanographic studies, the researchers found evidence for only one period in the last 300 million years when the oceans changed as fast as today: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. In ocean sediment cores, the PETM appears as a brown mud layer flanked by thick deposits of white plankton fossils. About 56 million years ago, a mysterious surge of carbon into the atmosphere warmed the planet and turned the oceans corrosive. In about 5,000 years, atmospheric carbon doubled to 1,800 parts per million (ppm), and average global temperatures rose by about 6 degrees Celsius. The carbonate plankton shells littering the seafloor dissolved, leaving the brown clay layer that scientists see in sediment cores today. As many as half of all species of benthic foraminifera, a group of one-celled organisms that live at the ocean bottom, went extinct, suggesting that deep-sea organisms higher on the food chain may have also disappeared, said paper co-author Ellen Thomas, a paleoceanographer at Yale University.”
It should be noted that the current atmospheric changes have occured over the last 200 years. Over a period of 50,000,000 years, the earth has recovered to the point of supporting a fabulous variety of life. In .00004% of that time, the promiscuous use of fossil fuels has almost ruined paradise. What G-d created in a year, man has destroyed in 21 minutes.
Alternet has a feature, Our Oceans Are in Dire Shape, But Without Them All Life on Land — Human, Plant and Animal — Is Totally Screwed. Here is a quote.  “Already the increased levels of ocean acidification have led to a loss of phytoplankton and of coral reefs. And losses of phytoplankton and of coral reefs have a ripple effect.
First, much marine life relies on them for nourishment. Flounder, haddock, pollock, salmon and shrimp all eat phytoplankton. Humans eat many of these fish. Krill eat phytoplankton and whales eat krill. So a decrease in one threatens the liveilhood of the other.
Second, phytoplankton also absorbs carbon dioxide. Phytoplankton floats along the ocean’s surface absorbing CO2 as land plants do in photosynthesis. As the CO2 is absorbed, the plant dies and sinks to the ocean floor, releasing CO2 along the way. Cold water can hold higher levels of CO2 than warmer water, so most of the CO2 released, which turns water acidic, is to be found along the ocean floor. But this acidic water does not stay at the ocean’s floor. During an upswell, it rises to the surface. Its acidity is deadly for the shells of marine life, such as shrimps, clams and oysters.
If the smallest part of the food chain is affected by ocean acidification, it ripples all the way up the food chain, making the largest part of the food chain vulnerable.”
Global warming may be the least of our worries. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.