Garage_Woodworks wrote:



"Mark & Juanita" wrote in message
...
Han wrote:

"Garage_Woodworks" .@. wrote in
:


"Garage_Woodworks" .@. wrote in message
...

CO2(g)------ CO2(aq) ---- H2CO3----- HCO3-1 ------ CO3-2.
---increasing pH------

The opposite is also true. As CO2(aq) goes to CO2(g) and leaves the
ocean the equilibrium shifts to the left and the CO2(aq)
concentration doesn't change. And the pH rises.

ABOVE should have read equilibrium shifts to the right. pH rises
(more basic) shifts to right. pH falls (more acidic) shifts to left.

Yes. In principle this is a very simple set of equations. The
difficulty is that oceans are not homogeneous, and we do not exactly
know where in the oceans their is really a good totaal capacity to
dissolve more gaseous CO2 (whether as truely dissolved gas or
transformed into
bicarbonate and carbonate). Also, it is not yet known whether ocean
acidification will indeed kill off corals or not. Or whether more
dissolved CO2 in whatever form will enhance coral growth. Very
complicated indeed, mostly because ocean mixing is still hotly discussed
science. What effects chanes in salinity will have is also important
when more arctic and antarctic ice will melt, and mix into the oceans.


Sanity check time. Find the volume of water contained in the world's
oceans, take the absolute worst-case CO2 concentrations that are being
bandied around. Determine the amount of CO2 required to have even a
measureable effect upon that volume of water.

You need to elaborate here. How would you determine what you are
proposing?

You can measure the drops in pH directly and make projections.

See: http://royalsociety.org/document.asp?id=3249
http://www.science.org.au/nova/106/106key.htm


It seems that there is a confusion of cause and effect here. The presumed
cause in the articles you cite is human activity increasing the
concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 concentration is on the order
of 300 ppm. My point was that in order to lower the pH of a volume of
liquid, a specific volume of acidic substance must be added. Even the most
hysterical of the GW believers don't place human impact at more than
several ppm. If one were to compute the volume of water in the ocean, the
question is how much volume of acidic substance must be added to that
liquid volume in order to change the pH even 0.1? The ultimate point being
that it is ludicrous to blame human activity on the ability to influence
that large a volume of liquid and even more ludicrous to blame it on
western (particularly US) society when areas such as India and China
produce far larger volumes of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants that can
contribute to acidification. Yet, all the GW believers seem to feel that
if they can just choke the life out of US industry and citizens, the world
will return to its previous balances.





....snip

--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough