Another Tipping Point Too Soon

By BJ

All the happy and not-so-happy news about the election having sucked up most of our time and energy, it is always harsh to realize there are several real world issues that aren't going too well.

Australian researchers have discovered that the tipping point for ocean acidification caused by human-induced carbon dioxide emissions is much closer than first thought.

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Ben McNeil, senior research fellow at the UNSW's Climate Change Research Centre, says the ocean is an enormous sink for carbon dioxide, but unfortunately this comes at a cost. "The ocean is a fantastic sponge for CO2, but as it dissolves in the ocean it reduces the pH of the ocean, so the ocean becomes more acidic."

This acidification makes life especially hard for marine creatures such as pteropods — an important type of plankton found in the Southern Ocean — whose shells are made up largely of calcium carbonate.

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This so-called 'tipping point' of acidification had been predicted to occur when atmospheric CO2 levels hit 550 parts per million, around the year 2060.

However, the new research shows levels of the carbonate that these creatures need to build and maintain their shells drops naturally in winter, due to natural variations in factors such as ocean temperature, currents and mixing, and pH.

This means the tipping point is likely to be reached at far lower atmospheric CO2 levels — around 450 ppm, says McNeil, which also happens to be the target set by the IPCC for stabilisation of CO2 emissions.

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"They're at the base of the food chain ... so right now we don't really know the ramifications."

Well, I think we can say that if the base of the food chain gets knocked out, the ramifications are going to be quite severe.

Just something to keep in mind when the usual suspects start moaning that Obama and other world leaders can't do anything to help save the environment because it may adversely affect the economy.