Large scale “geoengineering” solutions to climate change will not reverse rising acidity in the oceans which damages marine life, conservationists have warned.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) issued a call at the UN climate talks in Durban for countries to urgently address the issue of ocean acidification, caused by greater levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The oceans absorb around a quarter of the carbon dioxide humans put into the atmosphere each year, the IUCN said, but the gas dissolving into the seas causes the water to become more acidic.
The IUCN said the acidity of the world’s oceans had increased by 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and could continue at an unprecedented rate in the coming decades.
But while ocean acidification has the same cause as climate change – increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere – not all the solutions for global warming will help the situation faced by the seas, the International Ocean Acidification Reference User Group warned.
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EXPRESS.co.uk, 29 November 2011. Full article.
