The hoax of ocean acidification

• Published in: Quaestiones Geographicae
• Main Author: Ollier, Clifford
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2019
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/quageo-2019-0029; https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/quageo/38/3/article-p59.xml; https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/quageo-2019-0029

Abstract A widespread alarm is sweeping the world at present about the ill effects of man-made increases in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) production. One aspect is that it may cause the ocean to become acid, and dissolve the carbonate skeletons of many living things including shellfish and corals. However, the oceans are not acid, never have been in geological history, and cannot become acid in the future. Changes in atmospheric CO 2 cannot produce an acid ocean. Marine life depends on CO 2 , and some plants and animals fix it as limestone. Over geological time enormous amounts of CO 2 have been sequestered by living things, and today there is far more CO 2 in limestones than in the atmosphere or ocean. Carbon dioxide in seawater does not dissolve coral reefs, but is essential to their survival.