"Because it takes decades or even centuries for (carbon dioxide) to drop down to the bottom of the ocean, almost all the (carbon dioxide) created through human activity is still at the surface. But in the future, it will invade the deep-ocean, spread above the ocean floor and cause even more calcite particles at the seafloor to dissolve," lead author Olivier Sulpis of McGill's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences said in a press release.
"Sulpis noted that the rate at which carbon dioxide is currently being 'emitted into the atmosphere is exceptionally high in Earth's history, faster than at any period since at least the extinction of the dinosaurs.'
"'And at a much faster rate than the natural mechanisms in the ocean can deal with, so it raises worries about the levels of ocean acidification in future,' he added.
"The researchers came to their conclusions by simulating the conditions of the deep sea in the lab. They replicated the bottom currents, seawater temperature, chemistry and sediment compositions.
"Comparing the dissolution rates from pre-industrial and current times, the researchers determined recent human activity has significantly sped up the process.
"'Just as climate change isn't just about polar bears, ocean acidification isn't just about coral reefs,' noted former postdoctoral fellow David Trossman, now a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin. 'Our study shows that the effects of human activities have become evident all the way down to the seafloor in many regions, and the resulting increased acidification in these regions may impact our ability to understand Earth's climate history."
Nature is the leading British scientific journal. A just published report in Nature concludes that "ocean warming is at the high end of previous estimates, with implications for policy-relevant measurements of the Earth response to climate change, such as climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases and the thermal component of sea-level rise.
Last but far from least. Here is a report from The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an independent agency of the United States Government: "Climate Change: How Do We Know?"
This short, easy to read NASA report makes clear that scientific evidence for man-made warming of the climate system is unequivocal. The NASA report will help you to regain your powers of independent thought from deniers funded by the fossil fuel industry. Remember, you live in a world of propaganda. Indeed, propaganda dominates our world and our history books. Most people lack the scientific education to judge. Usually, I can figure out what the climate scientists are saying as I graduated from a top ranked scientific and technical institution and then went on to Oxford where my professor was the distinguished physical chemist, Michael Polanyi, teacher of a bevy of scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Science, including E.P. Wigner, Melvin Calvin, and his own son, John Polanyi. You have to decide who to believe -- independent scientists who have spent their careers studying climate change or hired guns defending material interests.
I understand that scientists, like all humans, can be mistaken in their view of reality, but at this time the evidence supports the climate scientists, just as the evidence supported the US Surgeon General's report on the link between smoking and lung cancer. The Surgeon General's report did not prevent the material interests from casting doubt and preventing action for two decades. According to the evidence we have, we do not have two decades before we act on carbon emissions.
The material interests have the most reassuring story, but they lack evidence.
Humans are, of course, selfish, and they might choose to continue to live well in the present at the expense of the future life of the planet.
Our generations will all be dead. If no one is here in the future, what is the bother?
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