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The Last Time Oceans Got This Acidic This Fast, 96% of Marine Life Went Extinct
merbs writes: The biggest extinction event in planetary history was driven by the rapid acidification of our oceans, a new study concludes (abstract). So much carbon was released into the atmosphere, and the oceans absorbed so much of it so quickly, that marine life simply died off, from the bottom of the food chain up. That doesn't bode well for the present, given the similarly disturbing rate that our seas are acidifying right now. A team led by University of Edinburgh researchers collected rocks in the United Arab Emirates that were on the seafloor hundreds of millions of years ago, and used the boron isotopes found within to model the changing levels of acidification in our prehistoric oceans. They now believe that a series of gigantic volcanic eruptions in the Siberian Trap spewed a great fountain of carbon into the atmosphere over a period of tens of thousands of years. This was the first phase of the extinction event, in which terrestrial life began to die out.
I'm not understanding: is this domesday?
No it's Dunes day.
At this point, whatever is gonna happen, is gonna happen.
Good thing the rapture is any moment now.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It is far more pressing in the snort term to stop doing drugs, mmkay?
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I notice TFA doesn't mention competing theories, like the ocean acidificaiton is being caused by the natural cycle of sunspots. This is a serious theory, put forth by me the other day when I was looking up at the sun and thinking that no one probably has done any research into how sunspots could affect ocean acidity. This is just anther example of the mainstream media not giving equal time to competing theories! Instead, they just focus on those that come from scientists doing studies!
And if it's not sunspots, it's probably volcanoes or something. I'll figure that out if someone disproved my first theory.
It's ok. In millions of years when they burn our oily remains for fuel we'll have our revenge.
Think long term here.
I can't figure out which one of the the thousands of manmade global catastrophes is going to be the one to take us out any moment now.
I used to worry about anthropological climate change but then I got a Facebook account and learned that GMO foods are going to kill me.
(That's another issue where public opinion is at complete odds with the scientific consensus, incidentally)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
More like your DNA is modified by what you eat
That's not how it works.