It’s hard to avoid getting depressed when listening to scientists discuss the impacts of climate change.
That was the case today at the 21st Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, hosted by the University of Miami.
NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said coral reefs and ocean acidification is the most underreported scientific story today.
A Status of Coral Reefs of the World report in 2008 found that the world has lost 19 percent of its reefs, with 35 percent threatened or at a critical stage, according to NOAA.
Andrew Baker, associate professor of marine biology at University of Miami, described corals as simple animals, related anemones and jellyfish. They build calcium-based essential ocean habitat for many other species.
But warming waters are causing a bleaching of coral that can turn fatal, he said.
And the carbon dioxide that we emit from our cars, trucks and power plants dissolved in seawater, making the ocean more acidic. Carbonate gets depleted and the growth of coral reef slows, he said.
Because coral reefs are so vital, that could start the ocean ecosystem to crumble.
“I’s not like dropping an Alka Seltzer in a glass of water and they start fizzing away,” said Mark Eakin, a NOAA scientist. “What we are seeing is something more like osteoporosis.”
He said scientists are seeing the best conditions of reefs in some areas are now like the worst conditions back in 1988. “That’s how fast things are happening,” he said.
He said to turn the tide back, the world needs to reduce co2 levels in the atmosphere from 394 parts per million to 350 ppm or so.
That means essentially stopping the burning of fossil fuels by 2050, said Jacqueline Savitz, a senior campaign director of the advocacy group Oceana.
She said a more acidic ocean will also impact many other species, rippling through the food web. It threatens tiny little organisms with shells that make up the bulk of the diet of salmon, for example. And certain populations of killer whales rely on salmon as food.
“We have no comparison for this set of conditions,” Baker said. “These conditions have not occurred for 50 million years.”
He said there have been five major mass extinctions on Earth, and all are had high temperatures and high levels of carbon dioxide.
“We are essentially trying to duplicate the conditions that caused mass extinctions in the past.”
Like I said, depressing.
But, the speakers at the panel discussion also said there still is time to make a difference.
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