Many of you know about reducing your carbon footprints to help mitigate climate change. Some people eat less meat, others work for companies which plant trees and re-build biodiverse forests. As we move forward in time it is also important to think about the oceans, as they absorb as much as 30% of our annual carbon emissions every year. Scientists in Florida recently tried an experiment, adding lime to the Apalachicola Bay, off Florida’s panhandle, in an effort to reduce the acidity level of the water. While the experiment did cut carbon levels and acidity, more work, on larger scales, has to be done. Increasing the oceans’ levels of carbon storage represents hope and promise as carbon levels throughout the world continue to increase.
According to new research, global warming is causing such a drastic change to the world’s oceans that it risks a mass extinction event of marine species that rivals anything that’s happened in the Earth’s history over tens of millions of years.
“The future of life in the oceans rests strongly on what we decide to do with greenhouse gases today. There are two vastly different oceans we could be seeing, one devoid of a lot of life we see today, depending on what we see with CO2 emissions moving forward,” said Justin Penn, a climate scientist at Princeton University who co-authored new research published in “Science”.
So what can you do? Reduce your carbon footprint, eat less meat, avoid using or purchasing items that are wrapped in plastic, and plant native trees. Trees are one of the best ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere. Thank you!
