One Christmas when I was a kid, my parents gave me a chemistry set. No doubt they hoped it would lead me to a career in science or medicine, but I was a little anarchist, more interested in blowing stuff up than fixing anyone up.
That’s the extent of my experience with chemistry. If you think about it, though, we all mess around with chemistry all the time. The things we do as we move through this world can alter the chemistry of everything we touch. That includes our oceans.
Right now, our pollution-belching cars, trucks, planes, boats and power plants are altering the delicate chemistry of the waters off Florida’s coast, both in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
(Courtesy of Jennifer Vreeland-Dawson)
A Tampa Bay ocean acidification monitor.
Our fossil fuel consumption is not just making the world hotter and sea levels creep higher. It’s also turning these normally beneficial bodies of water into a more acidic stew. This is a process called “ocean acidification.”
You’ve probably never heard of it. But in case you couldn’t guess, it’s a formula for disaster.
subhed = What Scientists Say
“Ocean acidification is already impacting many ocean species, especially organisms like oysters and corals that make hard shells and skeletons by combining calcium and carbonate from seawater,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.
Scientists recently released their most up-to-date version of the National Climate Assessment. It’s not nearly as fun as reading all those Christmas catalogs that landed in our mailboxes last month, but here’s a major headline.
“The oceans are absorbing about a quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere annually and are becoming more acidic as a result, leading to alterations in marine ecosystems,” the report says. “Over the last 250 years, the oceans have absorbed 560 billion tons of CO2, increasing the acidity of surface waters by 30 percent.”
That may not sound like much of a problem compared to, say, the record-breaking heat wave we experienced this year, or the massive storm surges from our rapidly intensified hurricanes.
Ocean acidification, however, is likely to ruin the Florida seafood industry, according to scientists – not to mention erode the state’s shorelines and undermine the limestone that protects Florida’s aquifer, the main source of our clean drinking water.
Speaking as someone who enjoys consuming lots of fresh Florida seafood, I am freaking out a little.
“It’s definitely a concern for the whole seafood industry,” Tom McCrudden, owner of the Tequesta-based Great Florida Shellfish Company, told me. “Yet there haven’t been a whole lot of resources devoted to the topic.”
There’s a reason for that. It involves our pro-fossil fuel politicians, many of whom are in Tallahassee – and in denial.
Limestone is a carbonate material, as are the shells of oysters and crabs and many coral reefs. Acidification dissolves carbonate materials. Consequently, acidic seawater makes those shellfish lose their ability to make solid shells. It makes corals, crucially important as nurseries for fish of all kinds, crumble to bits. It makes the oyster beds that line Florida’s coast dissolve, eroding the foundation of the coast.
(Courtesy of Craig Pittman)
Craig Pittman
“This is happening right now,” said Lisa Robbins, a now retired ocean acidification scientist. “The chemistry is straightforward. As the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, the oceans absorb it and increase in carbon dioxide too. When there are increases in carbon dioxide, the ocean becomes more acidic.”
The seafood industry is pretty important to Florida – its economic impact is estimated at $393 million, so why do Robbins and her fellow scientists believe we’re far behind on helping such a crucial economic force?
“The Trump administration suddenly said ocean acidification and climate change wasn’t a priority,” she said.
That meant the funding for studies dried up.
“As a result,” she said, “we are now lagging behind the rest of the world.”
subhed = Florida Deniers Further Damage
Although the federal government is now back in the hands of a reality-based administration, that’s sadly not true with our state government.
We have Gov. Ron “I’ve Never Even Met the Florida Republican Party chairman!” DeSantis, who contends that any concern about climate change is just “politicizing the weather,” and says he opposes doing any “left-wing stuff” to counteract it. And we have lots of fossil-fool lawmakers who oppose any financial moves to fight alteration of the climate.
These are not mere political talking points. In June, DeSastrous vetoed the seed money needed to get what would have been $346 million from Washington to help Floridians buy energy-saving appliances.
And in November, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue turned down $320 million in federal money aimed at reducing carbon emissions from tailpipes. He argued that federal transportation officials were overstepping their authority by earmarking money to cut pollution.
Yes indeed, telling those bossy bureaucrats in D.C. to keep their climate-fixing money will show them who’s ideologically pure!
Meanwhile, though, seafood entrepreneurs like McCrudden worry about their clams dying because they can’t form a shell.
Craig Pittman is a native Floridian and 30-year veteran of the Tampa Bay Times who has authored six books and currently co-hosts a podcast called “Welcome to Florida.”