Science Magazine printed an article about anthropogenic CO2 impact on the oceans in July 2004.  You can read the article here:  The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO₂

Some folks, spokepersons for industries who stood to turn a quick profit through environmental destruction, have created lots of smoke to make it less than clear that anthropogenic global climate change is happening and needs to be addresses. The ethics of folks who would choose to draw their paycheck from being part of the smoke machine are in question. 

Other folks, politically motivated, but unsophisticated thinkers, have done their part to prevent needed changes in public policy.  These unsophisticated thinkers are easily manipulated by wedge issues like abortion, gun rights, same-sex marriage etc. and then they can be counted on to mindlessly parrot the industry storyline and make it more difficult for the electorate to understand the situation we face.  We see an endless run of red herrings:  the ice caps on Mars are melting, environmentalists and their catalytic converters caused global warming, on and on.  Some of these smokescreens are more laughable than others, but the impact is not laughable. 

On May 22 2008, the NOAA published an updated article on the acidification problem.  You can read that article here: International Scientists Find ‘Acidified’ Water on the Continental Shelf from Canada to Mexico

from that article:

“Acidification of the Earth’s ocean water could have far-reaching impacts on the health of our near-shore environment, and on the sustainability of ecosystems that support human populations through nourishment and jobs,” said Richard W. Spinrad

Here is a potential teaching moment from this article: 

“We did not expect to see this extent of ocean acidification until the middle to the end of the century,” said Christopher Sabine.

One of the problems with increasing ocean acidification is that slight changes in the acidity level are having significant impact on the tiny shellfish that are near the base of the food chain of the oceans. The long term impact and the pace of change that can occur when you start knocking the blocks out at the base of the food chain are hard to measure.  Scientists are going to proceed very cautiously with trying to sort out these impacts, they are going to have trouble constructing models that can identify potential feedback loops that could speed up change.  

It is true that some unforeseen feedback loops might slow change and provide balance, but I think that the correct way to look at this situation is that it is like a house of cards.  

As you knock out cards at the bottom of the house of cards, it is possible that cards falling from above will happen to land on their edges instead of their flat surfaces.  It could happen. You don't see it happen very often. 

It has been a real disaster for the world that the US has had George Bush as president for the past eight years.  At a time when we should have been developing and implementing critical responses to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, we instead of have been focused on starting wars for oil profits and our "right" to burn fossil fuels at a disproportionate rate.  

Under a court order, the Bush White House has finally produced a required a report on global warming that could not be doctored or delayed further.  This report is three years late and it is very clear that anthropogenic global warming is happening and that the impacts are going to fall disproportionately on the poor and frail.  You can read the whole report here:  The effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States

So where is the hyperlocal link?   Well, walk out on the boardwalk and look at Puget Sound.  It is a delicate enviroment that is going to be significantly impacted by ocean acidification.  Catalytic converters are not the cause of this problem.  The melting ice caps on Mars are not causing ocean acidification.  The burning of fuels, especially fossil fuels, that dump an increasing amount of carbon dioxide into the environment is the cause of this problem.  This burning is done primariy by humans.   You connect the dots, kemosabe.  

The changes are going to be predominantly bad and they are going to happen faster than the scientific predictions.  I have said that here and elsewhere on a consistent basis.  I stand on my track record on this stuff.  As the rate of change becomes more apparent, the profitable stupidity and short term planning of ideas like the isthmus and waterfront development will also become more apparent.