Source: RedOrbit
March 2, 2012

"The world's oceans may be acidifying more rapidly than they have at any time in the past 300 million years due to high levels of pollution, according to research published this week in the journal Science.

Researchers, led by Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Bristol, assessed a number of climate change events in Earth's history, including an asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

They warn that too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the key factor that will make the oceans more acidic and imperil key parts of the marine food chain. It has happened before, and can happen again, they warn. In fact, ocean acidification appears to be occurring now at an unprecedented pace.

The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over such a large time period."

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