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Washington State Plans for a More Acid Ocean
James Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Auric Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.
Washington State has become the first in the nation to set out an action plan for addressing ocean acidification. The plan follows publication of a report by a Blue Ribbon Panel established by outgoing Governor Christine Gregoire back in March.
...
Some parts of the ocean may be particularly susceptible to ocean acidification, including the colder waters of the polar regions and areas that frequently experience seasonal coastal upwelling events, in which warm winds push surface waters away from shore, allowing colder, deeper water to climb to the surface. That colder, deeper water generally has a naturally lower pH than the water at the surface, partly because it is richer in carbon dioxide due to the respiration of microbes that decompose dead organisms.
...
Indeed, in 2007, millions of oyster larvae began dying at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Oregon, which raises oysters for farms from Mexico to Canada. Farther north, larvae began to die at Willapa Bay and Taylor Shellfish Farms in Washington. The cause was acidity in the water following a strong upwelling; and while the water that wells up from the deep contains CO2 that has been emitted 30 or 40 years previously, the event was a harbinger of what awaits as carbon dioxide levels in the ocean continue to increase.
Hence Governor Gregoire's decision to establish the Blue Ribbon Panel, chaired by her former chief of staff Jay Manning and by former Environmental Protection Agency head William Ruckelshaus. Following its report, Gregoire signed an order that calls on the state to invest more money in scientific research, curb nutrient runoff from land, and push for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on a regional, national and global scale.
“Let’s get to work,” Gregoire said at the report's launch. “Let’s lead the world in addressing this global challenge.”
http://news.discovery.com/earth/washington-state-plans-for-a-more-acid-ocean-121203.html
...
Some parts of the ocean may be particularly susceptible to ocean acidification, including the colder waters of the polar regions and areas that frequently experience seasonal coastal upwelling events, in which warm winds push surface waters away from shore, allowing colder, deeper water to climb to the surface. That colder, deeper water generally has a naturally lower pH than the water at the surface, partly because it is richer in carbon dioxide due to the respiration of microbes that decompose dead organisms.
...
Indeed, in 2007, millions of oyster larvae began dying at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery in Oregon, which raises oysters for farms from Mexico to Canada. Farther north, larvae began to die at Willapa Bay and Taylor Shellfish Farms in Washington. The cause was acidity in the water following a strong upwelling; and while the water that wells up from the deep contains CO2 that has been emitted 30 or 40 years previously, the event was a harbinger of what awaits as carbon dioxide levels in the ocean continue to increase.
Hence Governor Gregoire's decision to establish the Blue Ribbon Panel, chaired by her former chief of staff Jay Manning and by former Environmental Protection Agency head William Ruckelshaus. Following its report, Gregoire signed an order that calls on the state to invest more money in scientific research, curb nutrient runoff from land, and push for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on a regional, national and global scale.
“Let’s get to work,” Gregoire said at the report's launch. “Let’s lead the world in addressing this global challenge.”
http://news.discovery.com/earth/washington-state-plans-for-a-more-acid-ocean-121203.html