Scientific
academies from 70 nations issued a joint statement urging the
participants of the recent Bonn, Germany conference to more drastically
reduce CO2 emissions. Their concern in part stems from the oceans’
current absorption of approximately 30 percent of the CO2 emissions,
which has already caused acidification of the water. This particularly
threatens shellfish, corals, and other animals with shells made of
calcium
carbonate.
Dr. Katharine Richardson – Marine scientist, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (F): All sorts of different marine organisms make this calcium
carbonate. And calcium
carbonate,
and acid don’t go together very well. If you go into the kitchen and
you put baking soda and vinegar together, you can see the baking soda
dissolves, and that’s basically what’s happening to many marine
organisms as well.
VOICE: If the CO2 levels in the atmosphere
rise from 387 parts per million to 550, scientists say coral reefs may
disappear worldwide. Furthermore, other side effects may actually cause
the oceans themselves to emit CO2 into the atmosphere.
Dr. Katharine Richardson (F): There
are so many processes when the ocean becomes warmer. For example, the
bacteria become more active, and that means the plants break down before
they get to the deep ocean. So you release the CO2 again to the
atmosphere. That process alone would be enough to increase the CO2 in
the atmosphere in the future by so much that it would actually change
whether or not we think we can reach the goals we’re looking for.
VOICE:
Dr. Richardson, University of Copenhagen and all concerned scientists,
we are grateful for this vital information. May humanity quickly awaken
to the plight of our world’s oceans and act to save marine environments
and ourselves.
In a June 2008 videoconference with our
Association members in the United Kingdom, Supreme Master Ching Hai
expressed once more her concern about the precarious warming of our
biosphere that must be halted.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
We have less CO2 in the atmosphere now than what is even in store for
us in the ocean bed. Because the ocean, the river also absorb CO2 and
they store there. But now as the weather is getting warmer and these
gases going to be released…
The permafrost layer is melting each day. And the methane gas, or other gas even, are releasing into the atmosphere. I really hope and pray that someone is listening.
If
we stop the worst cause of global warming, meaning stock raising,
animal breeding, then we will be able to save the planet. We have to
stop the killing of man or animals.
Referencehttp://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/06/01/
01greenwire-science-academies-urge-co2-cuts-to-protect-oce-74403.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/5420048/CO2-levels-may-cause-underwater-catastrophe.html