Acidification and Warming

Ocean acidification is climate change's less-famous twin. When CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid. Since the Industrial Revolution, ocean pH has dropped by about 0.1 units — a thirty percent increase in acidity. This sounds small but is devastating for organisms that build shells or skeletons from calcium carbonate.

Ocean warming compounds the crisis. Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen, creating expanding dead zones where most marine life cannot survive. Since 1960, oxygen-depleted ocean zones have quadrupled in size — a trend accelerating as global temperatures continue climbing.