Monday, July 20, 2009

Analysis of Alarmism: Ocean acidification

What is Ocean Acidification?

Oceans absorb or release CO2 primarily determined by the amount in the atmosphere and the water temperature. The argument is that regardless of what the air temperature does increased CO2 amount in the atmosphere due to human activity guarantees more going into the oceans. This change results in a change in water chemistry reflected in one measure, the pH.

A solution has a pH level that is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity. The pH scale is from 0 to 14 and a measure of 7 is neutral. The scale is created relative to standard solutions and agreed on internationally. Above 7 the solution is more alkaline and below 7 it is more acid. The oceans are considered to have a pH of 8.2 with a variance of 0.3, so it is an alkaline solution.

The claim of ocean acidification is based on estimates and computer models; these use the very questionable pre-industrial atmospheric level of CO2 to calculate an increase of about 0.1 pH units. Of course, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) attributes the CO2 increase to human production, which is wrong because the global carbon cycle is very vague about sources, storage and length of time in each condition. For example, the error in the estimate of CO2 from the oceans each year is greater than the total human contribution.

No comments: