Introduction

Welcome to my blog for GEOG3057: Global Environmental Change. In here, I am going to investigate one of the world’s most threatening global environmental problems – ocean acidification, another problem caused by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. It seems that people tend to concern themselves with the Earth’s atmosphere only as the victim of burning fossil fuels, but often neglecting the ocean. In actual fact, the ocean is one of the major carbon sinks of our Earth, absorbing a quarter of the Earth’s CO2 emissions. However, scientists have discovered that with the ever-increasing level of CO2 in the atmosphere, the ocean has become more and more acidic which severely threatens marine life.  Some researchers even predict that if we continue to emit CO2 in the same way as we do now, ocean acidity is going to double by the end of this century. By then, nearly all marine life will be destroyed!

In the following 10 weeks, I will present to you my investigation on the problem of ocean acidification by analysing the ocean chemistry in the past, so as to understand and to predict our ocean’s destiny in the future. To start with, I would like to share with you a documentary produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to present to you this most alarming global environmental problem from a group of ocean scientists.