Re: The Rising Tide of Acid

On Feb 17, 11:16 pm, Sam Wormley <sworml...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Rising Tide of Acid
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/217/2

Drop a tooth in a can of carbonated soda, and it will dissolve.
That's because the carbon dioxide that makes the beverage bubbly also
makes it acidic.

Simply not true. The corrosive agent in soda is PHOSPHORIC ACID
(H3PO4), not carbonic acid. There is also some citric acid in there,
too. The CO2 level of soda drops very quickly once you open the can/
bottle, in accordance with Henry's Law.

If you leave pure water sitting on the desktop, the pH falls to 5.5.
Does this solution dissolve teeth?

BTW, if a "science" article begins its first sentence with complete
and utter bullshit, what does that tell you about the rest of the
article?

The same thing is happening with the world's oceans
as they take up CO2 released by the burning of fossil fuels.

Which doesn't mean what you apparently think it means. If the oceans
are taking up CO2 (as one would expect), then they form a very
significant sink for human generated CO2, which will mitigate many of
the more catastrophic predicted effects of global warming.

A
research cruise through the Pacific Ocean has revealed just how much
more acidic the ocean has become over the last 15 years, confirming
the predictions of computer models.

Yes, the computer models that by coincidence agree. How many computer
models DON'T agree?


It's not news that carbon dioxide poses a threat to some sea life. In
recent years, researchers have shown through computer models and lab
experiments that rising acidity coupled with an increase of dissolved
inorganic carbon makes it harder for animals to build calcium
carbonate shells and can even dissolve them (ScienceNOW, 28 September
2005). Deep, cold waters are naturally like this, so shelled
organisms live in shallower waters, above what is called the
aragonite saturation zone. (Aragonite is a kind of calcium
carbonate.)

But the siolubility of CO2 is also temperature dependent, dissolving
beter in cold water (Hadley's Law). So there are at least two
competing effects, the increased partial pressure of CO2 which
increases solubility (Henry's Law), and the higher temp which
decreases solubility (Hadley's Law).


The changes in acidity, or pH, are quite small, so researchers use
so-called spectrophotometric procedures that can detect differences
down to 0.001 pH units. These methods were first used at sea on a
1991 cruise in the Pacific from Tahiti to Alaska. Last year,
researchers retraced their route to see how things had changed.

In other words, they have TWO data points, 16 years apart! Let me
guess, they know that this is a LINEAR RELATIONSHIP? (Hey, it's GOT
to be linear - we have two data points!!!!!!!)


Acidity

Notice the use of "acidity" rather than pH. Acidity implies that the
oceans are actually acidic already. But they're not. The pH of the
oceans is 8.14. How can this be? If all the ocean is is water and C)2,
how can the pH be HIGHER than pure water? Answer: because the ocean is
a very complex thing. Even the simplest model would model the ocean as
a pH buffer, and the presence of organisms that undergo photosynthesis
would clearly show that CO2 in the water can be metabolized.

was almost exactly the same as before in the deep ocean, 3 to
5 kilometers below the surface. But in the upper 700 meters, the
waters had on average become more acidic by 0.025 pH units--matching
the prediction of computer models, says Richard Feely, an
oceanographer with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in Seattle, Washington. He described the findings
yesterday here at the annual meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW).

What about the CO2 levels in the rest of the oceans? Isn't that
important?
There are two usual reasons why a scientist wouldn't mention the other
oceans: 1) he didn't have data from the other oceans (which, given the
importance, seems lame), or 2) the evidence in the other oceans
doesn't support his thesis, so he therefore ignores it.


In addition, dissolved inorganic carbon had become more prevalent in
surface waters over the past 15 years. Factoring this in with the
change in acidity, Feely and his colleagues calculate that the
aragonite saturation horizon is rising rapidly. In the North Pacific,
this danger zone is migrating upward through the ocean about 1 meter
per year. This change is largely due to human-caused increases in
C02, Feely says. Off the California coast, the rate is 5 meters per
year, higher perhaps because of changes in ocean currents.

Nice touch of "the ocean currents" at the end to hedge his bets.
Didn't mention "ocean currents" earlier; could that be the reason that
the aragonite saturation horizon is "rising rapidly"?


"This is a huge change in the ocean," said James Orr of the
International Atomic Energy Agency Marine Environmental Laboratory in
Monaco, in a related presentation at the meeting. John Guinotte of
the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Washington,
who was not involved, agrees. The rate of change is "amazing," he
says.

© 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science


.

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  • The Rising Tide of Acid
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    (sci.physics)