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Hot topics Monday 1 June 2009 RAPID ROUNDUP: World's science academies warning on ocean acidification - experts respond Embargo lifted 9.01am AEST Monday 1 June 2009 The joint statement which is endorsed by the Australian Academy of Science and the academies of sixty nine other countries around the world, has been issued during the UNFCCC conference in Bonn. The conference will ultimately shape the Copenhagen negotiations, where agreement must be reached on carbon emission reduction targets needed to avoid dangerous climate change. Ocean acidification is expected to cause massive corrosion of our coral reefs and dramatic changes in the makeup of the biodiversity of our oceans and to have significant implications for food production and the livelihoods of millions of people. The statement calls for world leaders to explicitly recognise the direct threats posed by increasing atmospheric CO2 emissions to the oceans and its profound impact on the environment and society. It emphasises that ocean acidification is irreversible and, on current emission trajectories, suggests that all coral reefs and polar ecosystems will be severely affected by 2050 or earlier. A copy of the statement will be available shortly. A list of all Academies that have signed the statement is copied below.
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"Ocean acidification is a particularly important threat to the world's coral reefs, and to the societies and economies that depend on them. Higher CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are making the ocean more acidic, reducing the ability of corals to build their carbonate skeletons. We already have clear evidence that the growth rate of corals is slowing because of ocean acidification. Higher temperatures from global warming have already bleached and killed many corals on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 and 2002, and future bleaching is only a matter of time. Unless the world can sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the combination of repeated bouts of bleaching, more extreme storms, and slower growth due to acidification will have a severe impact on coral reefs and the tourism and fisheries industries they support. Australia, as a wealthy country, should take the lead among coral reef nations in reducing emissions. We only have a narrow window of opportunity to prevent further severe damage to coral reefs before it's too late."
Dr Will Howard is an oceanographer from the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and the University of Tasmania. "Ocean acidification is distinct from, and mainly independent of, global warming arising from overall greenhouse gas increases, and thus is independent of debates about the validity of computer-model-based projections of future climate. Ocean acidification only arises from CO2, not from other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide so that controlling emissions of those gases will not mitigate ocean acidification. This impact puts the focus squarely on carbon dioxide. Similarly, proposals to mitigate the global warming impacts of greenhouse gas by changing the reflectivity of the upper atmosphere or the earth's surface will not ameliorate ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is already affecting some calcifiers. This impact is happening now in nature, not in a computer simulation or in a laboratory manipulation and can be directly attributed to CO2 emissions."
”If atmospheric CO2 levels continue rising, ocean acidification may render most regions of the ocean inhospitable to coral reefs by 2050. The fishing industry, too, is set to suffer. We are entering a regime not seen for at least 20 million years. But the research is in its infancy: 62% of the research papers on the subject were published in the last four years. What we need is some kind of global early warning system across the world’s oceans – and deep cuts in emissions.”
Signatories of the InterAcademy Panel Statement • TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world
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