By Daniel de la Calle
Some news on Ocean Acidification from the past few weeks:
¤ NOAA has released a new page on Ocean Acidification that delivers general information on the topic and describes the work that the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration is carrying out. A couple links to the content and nice graphics.
http://pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Research
¤ We all like our technology news and fun youtube videos. Want to take a look at one of the cars of the future?:
¤ This is an article Barbara sent me some time ago about how small $80 solar panels are changing people’s lives in Africa. It has been stuck in my mind for weeks. Very moving. An absolute must read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/science/earth/25fossil.html
¤ Some of the most technologically advanced research on Ocean Acidification is taking place in Australia. The Climate Change Mesocosm Project from the Global Change Institute’s Coral Reef Ecosystems Laboratory is an accurate system that simulates ocean temperatures and acidification levels predicted for the next 50 to 100 years on coral reefs.
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/12/07/conditioning.reefs.future
¤ The number of ocean “dead zones” (an area where a mixture of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer runoffs creates algae blooms that kill everything in water) has been doubling every decade since the first one was discovered some 40 years ago in the Mississippi River. There are now over 400 dead zones in the world.
Read more about it, see a picture of what a dead zone looks like:
http://nofishleft.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ocean-dead-zones-double-down-the-seas-are-the-limit/
¤ New research indicates that undersea methane could be contributing to ocean acidity.
¤ It has been on the news for some time, but in case you missed it or want to see some in depth information about it, 2010 has been the hottest year in recorded history. This link is about the month of November last year, but the graphics and information are fantastic. All this heat in spite of a solar minimum. The NASA report
