Where can I find out more about ocean acidification?

For scientific news, an excellent, constantly updated source is Ocean Acidification, a portal and blog sponsored by the European Project on Ocean Acification. Another excellent source is the PMEL Ocean Acidification site. For basic information, check out the Wikipedia article. Or follow A Sea Change on twitter.

What is “ocean acidification”?

When we think about urgent threats to our environment, the images which come to mind are usually smokestacks and automobiles belching exhaust and smoke 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 […]

What can I personally do to reduce ocean acidfication?

Any action you’d take to reduce release of CO2 in the atmosphere will help. So at home, for example, if your electricity comes from coal-fired plants, turn off unneccessary lights. In some part of the United States, it’s possible to choose where your electricity comes from; you can request that all your power be generated […]

What are the potential long-term consequences of ocean acidification?

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 the protein source for 1 […]

What action is being taken to curb ocean acidification?

So far, not much! Reducing ocean acidification means reducing carbon output. And, as you know, nations are struggling to agree on acceptable levels of greenhouse gas. The upcoming meeting in Copenhagen this December, COP-15, will be a crucial time for all countries to come to grips with the reality of climate change, above and in […]

What about carbon sequestration?

So far, no reliable method has been found for removing excess carbon from the atmosphere, other than dissolving it in the ocean. Which as we’ve just learned isn’t a good idea! A method may be found, but until then, the only solution we know is radically reducing the burning of fossil fuels. Period.

Can the scenario really be this grim? Why haven’t I heard about it before?

Given all of the attention we’re paying to climate change on the earth’s surface, it does seem surprising that this threat has gone relatively unnoticed so long.  Most of us don’t look below the ocean’s surface. As long as we see fish in the supermarket and on our table, we don’t question where they’re coming from. […]

Art&facts

By Daniel de la Calle For more than 35,000 years we have been inspired by nature, driven to reproduce and depict it in drawings, carvings, photography or film.  That original motivation might have been shamanistic, triggered by a dependence on other species for survival, but in many cases there are also unquestionable examples of our […]

Condensed by Distillation

By Daniel de la Calle Decanted from the speedy flow of information here are a handful of the latest news on Ocean Acidification: ≈≈≈The Third International Symposium on The Ocean in a High-CO2 World took place at the end of last month. You can read the press release at the end of the four-day event […]

Thank You and Goodbye

By Daniel de la Calle I have been writing for our blog since early 2010, traveling also on occasions to South America to screen the film and talk about Ocean Acidification.  I cannot list the number of ways in which what seemed like a simple task has enriched my life, providing the perfect excuse to […]

Deceptive December

By Daniel de la Calle December in the Southern Hemisphere equals summer heat and the end of the school year, but thanks to the winds from the north we still get snowflake and icicle lighting on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and the ever-present image of that famous obese man promising presents, provokingly overdressed […]

The Doom of Hope

By Daniel de la Calle Two weeks ago Professor Roger Bradbury (Australian National University) signed a New York Times op-ed piece in which the real situation and improbably future of coral reefs was for once spelled with all its letters, not softened by gentle words and nonexistent bright sides.   As a specie we might […]

Eye Candy as Brain Food

By Daniel de la Calle Images of blue along each one of these videos and links: ≈≈≈A feel-good story on video: divers off the shore of Socorro Island in Mexico free a majestic whale shark from the thick anchor rope strangling its body. ≈≈≈Chances are you have seen one of Mark Tipple’s iconic photographs of […]

Free Popcorn and Lemonade Screening

By Daniel de la Calle ≈≈≈The Duke Chapel Congregation has scheduled a free outdoor screening of A Sea Change this Friday, July 20th (at dusk, around 8:30PM). Moviegoers “are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets. Free popcorn and lemonade will be provided. A discussion will follow the film. In case of rain, […]

How Much Do You Know About Water And The Oceans?

By Daniel de la Calle Let’s play a little quiz game thanks to some of the Sierra Club Knowledge Cards, see how much you know about water and the oceans.  I encourage you to to buy as presents these fun decks of cards, a good companion for road trips, both interesting and educational.  They can […]

In The Name Of Hope

By Daniel de la Calle There Ocean Acidification news this week is about the impact it might have in the reproduction and growth of squid. In the years since A Sea Change was conceived the list of threatened species has only grown, with every new study painting a somber picture for the future of fish, […]

Interview with Elias and Sven

By Daniel de la Calle   Between lemonades, swimming pools and ice cream Sven and Elias sat down for this brief interview, five years after the beginning of A Sea Change:

January 2013

By Daniel de la Callehttp://www.danieldelacalle.com/ Gone is 2012, the hottest or coldest year in recent history depending on where you live, gone too are the days of Ocean Acidification information famine.  You can now watch videos deciphering the oceans, listen to songs about acidity, follow via tweets a research expedition to Antarctica, attend a seminar […]

100 Screenings in Chile

By Daniel de la Calle About a year ago I traveled with our documentary to Chile for a series of screenings in Santiago, Valparaiso and Puerto Montt.  While in Valparaiso I had the chance to meet with some of the local Natural History Museum staff, under renovation at the time.   They liked the film for […]

July, July!

By Daniel de la Calle Some news before the month comes to an end: ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  “The Australian government announced plans to construct the largest network of marine reserves in the world, more than doubling the number of coastal reserves to 60 from its existing 27. The new regulations will limit fishing and oil and gas […]

13 News for the 31st

By Daniel de la Calle Three years ago you really needed to scrape at the bottom of the barrel to come up with news on the web about Ocean Acidification.  Today I am “only” posting 13 items and have to leave at least 10 more out: ≈≈≈≈64% of the waters existing outside national jurisdiction, the […]

Late February, Late Winter News

By Daniel de la Calle We cannot let the month end and watch the season slowly fade out without a postful of links, videos, news and photos on Ocean Acidification: »The Oceanography Laboratory at Villefranche-sur-Mer (France) is deploying nine “mesocosms” (52 m3) over a 30 days period in order to cover the range of pCO2 […]

400 Blows

By Daniel de la Calle 400 blows do not raise hell after all: This month of May 2013 will be remembered as the time when we passed that 400ppm line of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.  The media often uses the crossing of such a round, numeric Rubicons to begin global campaigns and to instigate […]

Marching Through March

By Daniel de la Calle March 2013 is furiously peeling off days from the calendar, desperate to pass the torch on to other months, other seasons.  Time these days feels radically non-linear, we better post some news about the oceans and acidification this very day: •According to a new paper published in Nature Geoscience predators […]