World's oceans near critical acidification level: report

Hard to deny destructive ocean acidification when it is so easily measured but I guess some will not want to hear it and will be nihilistically and blithely happy to go on justifying our failing system and stupidity.

And still, completely rational comments as Moonraker's somehow get down thumbed. Amazing!

There should be more informative news articles like this one, on the issues that really are important for us and future generations.

I guess it will be a while, but Thwaites glacier is melting pretty fast now. Eventually, the extra water entering the ocean will dilute the acid a bit. Of course, more coastal land being flooded and forests rotting will release additional methane...

The ocean has been a really massive sink for humanity's CO2 emissions. As the ocean approaches saturation level, making it less efficient as an absorber of CO2, not only will the ocean's ability to sustain sea-life decline, but the rate of global warming will increase. A higher percentage of the CO2 that we have been dumping into the air will stay there, instead of dissolving into the ocean.

This is very bad news. Droughts, fires, and flooding will get worse.

On the positive side, as global atmospheric disasters become more frequent, the need to take corrective action will become more obvious and harder to argue against.

On the negative side, CO2 has a half life in the air of roughly 100 years, so in terms of the length of a human life, things will continue to get worse for a long time, no matter what we do to clean up our energy generation and use.

--- but the rate of global warming will increase. A higher percentage of the CO2 that we have been dumping into the air will stay there, instead of dissolving into the ocean.

Precisely.

On the positive side, as global atmospheric disasters become more frequent, the need to take corrective action will become more obvious and harder to argue against.

You assume that 1) the denialists are connected to reality, 2) the denialists are not interested in the ruin of the planet. Both assumptions are wrong.

The denialists will continue with their campaign of intimidation, and will prevent taking corrective action at all costs. This is so despite the fact that solar energy is now cheaper than the energy produced from carbon, and the fact that electrical transportation is way more efficient than transportation based on petrol, in every way.

1glenn

The ocean has been a really massive sink for humanity's CO2 emissions. 

Only humanitys CO2 emissions? How does the ocean distinguish between human and non-human CO2 emissions? And I assume you do know that CO2 is an essential part of the natural carbon cycle and without the appr. 0.4% CO2 in the atmosphere there would be no life?