Project Censored's #1 Unreported Story - Ocean Acidification
Our oceans are acidifyingeven if the nightly news hasnt told you yet. As humanity continues to fill the atmosphere with harmful gases, the planet is becoming less hospitable to life as we know it. The vast oceans absorb much of the carbon dioxide we have produced, from the industrial revolution through the rise of global capitalism. Earths self-sacrifice spared the atmosphere nearly 25 percent of humanitys CO2 emissions, slowing the onslaught of many severe weather consequences.
Although the news media have increasingly covered the climate weirding of global warminghurricane superstorms, fierce tornado clusters, overwhelming snowstorms and record-setting global high temperaturesour oceans peril has largely stayed submerged below the biggest news stories.
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There are outlets, regular daily papers, who are independent and theyre out there, Andy Lee Roth, associate director of Project Censored, told us. Too many news outlets are beholden to corporate interests, but Welch of the Seattle Times bucked the trend, Roth said, by writing some of the deepest coverage yet on ocean acidification. There are reporters doing the highest quality of work, as evidenced by being included in our list, Roth said. But the challenge is reaching as big an audience as [the story] should.
Indeed, though Welchs story was reported in the Seattle Times, a mid-sized daily newspaper, this warning is relevant to the entire world. To understand the impact of ocean acidification, Welch asks readers to imagine every person on earth tossing a hunk of CO2 as heavy as a bowling ball into the sea. Thats what we do to the oceans every day. Computer modeler Isaac Kaplan, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Seattle, told Welch that his early work predicts significant declines in sharks, skates and rays, some types of flounder and sole and Pacific whiting, the most frequently caught commercial fish off the coast of Washington, Oregon and California.
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http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-9445-project-censored.html