If The Ocean Doesn't Breathe, We Don't Breathe
Here's an important aspect to note about rising sea-levels. It is most often discussed in terms of flooded cities and the resulting environmental refugees. But another crucial impact of these melting glaciers is the change in PH in the ocean water. The PH of the ocean has already become so acidic (due to increased carbon dioxide being absorbed from the atmosphere) that mass marine animal extinction is in full swing.
If glaciers melt as predicted, without offset actions to attempt preservation and mitigation, the ocean will become UN-inhabitable to all marine life. This includes the food that hundreds of millions of people eat to survive. While it is also difficult (and perhaps silly) to rank the importance of ocean creatures, for me, one of the most significant losses amidst this ocean-life extinction is the plankton. Why is the plankton so important? Well, the plankton is the tiny little creature in the ocean that is producing 50% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. In fact, it is the plankton's oxygen production that created enough oxygen for ocean life to originally move onto land millions of year's ago. So, no plankton equals 50% less oxygen + already we are double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than has ever occurred on Earth. (that's going to make it really hard to breathe for all of us land animals). ***If the ocean doesn't breathe, we don't breathe*** Glacial ice core samples containing geological records going back millions of years contain a bunch of ancient frozen atmosphere, that geologists have been able to study and learn the composition of the Earth's atmosphere during past periods of global warming.
Our Earth, DOES indeed go thru natural cycles of warming and cooling and in fact, it is the greenhouse effect that allows all of life to thrive on this planet. But what we have learned from the available evidence is that during every one of these past periods of glaciation (the cooling part of that warming/cooling cycle) the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has NEVER gone above 280 PPM (parts per million), today it is over 400ppm. Another important element of how human activity is ACCELERATING the natural heating and cooling cycle is that right now, all geological signs have indicated we should be reentering the cooling part of that warming/cooling, i.e. on a cooling trend, but as we all know the globe is warming, the opposite.
I wanted to write this post because I have been taking a lot of science class and doing a lot of research for papers that has really helped me understand SOME of the bigger picture and potential/probable impacts of the changing climate. So, I'm hoping this post helps you springboard in to more research of your own to understand the situation facing this entire planet and get a perspective on some aspects of this situation you may not be aware of.
If you are interested in discussing this, please post and if you just want to check some of this info on your own, here are some links:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming#.Vv3Q4Xq2qrY
http://climate.nasa.gov/
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/category/96/all
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/
http://www.un.org/climatechange/
I was prompted to write this post because of this headline today: http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/31/headlines/dramatic_sea_level_rise_could_flood_coastal_cities_by_2100
I am a Filipino that always experience typhoons and floods. What a very interesting blog...
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