Ocean Acidification Claims are Misleading – and deliberately so
Chemistry debunks junk climate science in the ‘global warming causes ocean acidification’ debate. Established Chemistry proves that if temperatures were rising then, conversely, acidification would be falling, not increasing. Such is the woeful science ignorance (or intentional deceit) of climate alarmists.
Indisputable facts
carbon dioxide (CO2), dissolved in pure water, makes a weak, unstable acid, whilst the ocean water is a very stable buffer with a pH averaging around 8, which means it is alkaline;
there isn’t enough CO2 in the atmosphere to make much difference to the ocean’s pH;
the concentration of enough CO2 to significantly reduce the ocean’s pH will not come from the atmosphere;
the mass of the oceans is a huge 268 times the mass of the atmosphere;
CO2 is currently only 0.04{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of that atmosphere.
Discussion about those facts
Besides the above chemical and physical facts, it is well known that an increase in water temperature will reduce the solubility of CO2.
Leave any opened cold carbonated drink – from champagne to Coke – to warm up and see what happens to the fizz, which is CO2 in case you didn’t know. Your warmed champagne/Coke goes ‘flat’ because the carbon dioxide has escaped the liquid and entered the atmosphere.
It is therefore not rocket science to state with complete confidence that warm water naturally contains less CO2 than cold water.
The oceans are outgassing CO2 due to the slight warming trend since the end of the Mini Ice Age (c. 1850’s). The exact cause of this trend IS NOT known and remains the subject of much scientific debate! There is evidence that there is a gap of many centuries between planet-wide temperature swings and atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
The Climate Alarmist’s Case
Climate alarmists are stunningly contradictory and actually amusing if they didn’t hold the world at ransom over this non-problem of a slight increase in CO2 concentrations.
They point out the slight increasing trend in temperatures as alarming!
They point out the side effect of this slight increasing trend in temperatures – rising sea levels – as alarming!
Then they claim man’s CO2 emissions will increase ocean acidification – as alarming!
But you simply cannot have it both ways – that is an “Inconvenient Truth”!
Summary and Conclusion
Either the oceans are getting warmer and the CO2 concentration in seawater is decreasing, which means that ocean acidification from man-made CO2 from the atmosphere is nonsense.
Or the oceans are getting cooler and the man-made CO2 from the atmosphere is dissolving in those cooler oceans and causing – insignificant – ocean acidification, which means that warming oceans and the associated sea level rises are nonsense.
Take your pick – REAL SCIENCE says you can’t have both.
Further reading on this subject may be found here:
http://carbon-sense.com/2012/
http://carbon-sense.com/wp-
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