Frequently Asked Questions

What is "ocean acidification"?

→ Today, when we think about urgent threats to our environment, the images which come to mind are smokestacks and automobiles belching pollution into the sky. But much of that pollution--the carbon that billows into the atmosphere from cars, power plants and other smokestack industries--doesn't stay there. Much of it is absorbed by the oceans, where it becomes carbonic acid, with effects potentially as catastrophic as those of global warming.At abnormally elevated levels, carbonic acid lowers the natural pH of our oceans. That in turn decreases the available calcium carbonate that is essential for the formation of bones in fish, shells on crustaceans and reef material from corals. For example, we are now seeing early signs of damage to pteropods which are the essential food of juvenile salmon. The effects of the addition of CO2 to the ocean ripples across many species, including human beings who rely on the sea for both sustenance and economic survival.

What are the potential long-term consquences?

→ Over the next century, steady increases in carbon dioxide emissions and the resulting rise in the acidity of the oceans could cause most of the world's fisheries to experience a total bottom-up collapse, a state that could last for millions of years. Ocean acidification threatens over 1,000,000 species with extinction--and with them, our entire way of life.

Can the scenario really be this grim? How come I never heard of it before?

→ Given all of the attention being paid to climate change on the earth's surface, it is indeed surprising that this impending threat has gone so relatively unnoticed. And yet, scientists are nearly unanimous in concluding that the threat is real. Ocean acidification is indeed the "sleeper" environmental issue of our time. And so A Sea Change sets out not merely to wake the public up to this vast yet little-known threat, but also to inspire viewers to take action on every level, from the personal to the global.