Acidic Oceans

Oceans adsorb a lot of carbon dioxide.  This may have slowed down the increase in global mean temperature, but it also means that the acidity of oceans is increasing at the highest rate in 300 million years.

Update (September 22):  The Seattle Times reports on the impact of ocean acidification.

Update (October 4):  A follow up post about The State of the Ocean Report 2013.

Update (October 6):  More about the report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean.

Update (October 16):  A study published in PLOS Biology looks at the impact of climate change on the world's ocean.

Update (October 31):  A study lead by Yair Rosenthal of Rutgers University shows that the world's ocean is now absorbing heat 15 times as fast as it had been over the previous 10,000 years.  That absorption has been a buffer against the effects of climate change for the past 60 years.

Update (July 2, 2014):  Concern about "missing" plastic, and a Newsweek report about the damage being done to the oceans.

Update (April 12, 2015):  According to a study from the University of Edinburgh, rates of acidification in the oceans are similar to those of 250 million years ago that prompted the greatest extinction event in earth's history.

Update (August 9, 2015):  A study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany concludes that ocean acidification could take centuries to reverse.

Update (November 12, 2018):  Garbage patches only account for a small fraction of the plastic entering the ocean.