Pirate's Cove

We’re all going to die!!!!!

Acidifying Oceans Add Urgency To Carbon Dioxide Cuts

It’s not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases, human emissions of carbon dioxide have also begun to alter the chemistry of the ocean–often called the cradle of life on Earth.

The ecological and economic consequences are difficult to predict but possibly calamitous, warn a team of chemical oceanographers in the July 4 issue of Science, and halting the changes already underway will likely require even steeper cuts in carbon emissions than those currently proposed to curb climate change. (emphasis mine)

They are “difficult to predict,” yet, here ya go, we are going to predict that we are all going to die. Only in AGW World.

Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, writing with lead author Richard Zeebe of the University of Hawaii and two co-authors*, note that the oceans have absorbed about 40% of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted by humans over the past two centuries. This has slowed global warming, but at a serious cost: the extra carbon dioxide has caused the ocean’s average surface pH (a measure of water’s acidity) to shift by about 0.1 unit from pre-industrial levels. Depending on the rate and magnitude of future emissions, the ocean’s pH could drop by as much as 0.35 units by the mid-21st century.

Yes, because we had all those massively cool SUV’s back in the 1800’s. This is simply alarmist and predicting doom and gloom with projection and few facts.

So, how about Greenland?

So Much For Flooded Cities: Greenland Ice Loss Not Increasing

For global warming activists, Greenland is the most potent weapon of fear in their arsenal. With Antarctica cooling, and the floating ice at the North Pole incapable of affecting sea levels, Greenland alone can contribute the vast amounts of melted ice capable of flooding cities. Greenland — which began gradually melting at the end of the last ice age some 20,000 years ago — continues to slowly shed ice today.

The only problem? It’s melting far too slowly. At its current rate, Greenland will take thousands of years to significantly affect sea level.

Fears have still arisen, however, over claims that melting rate is being accelerated by man-made global warming. Some past studies have indicated this may be happening, by measuring the rate at which glaciers have slid towards the sea, sped by melt water beneath lubricating the process.

However, a new study has concluded that Greenland’s rate of melting is not accelerating, and in fact may actually be decreasing when viewed over a longer timescale. The study, which used 17 years of satellite measurements to reach its conclusions, determined the overall yearly movement of ice to the sea is not increasing, and is actually decreasing in some places.

The people who did the study must be in the pay of Big Oil or Big Coal or Big Something Evil.