Waste and Emissions»UK to Study C02 Impact on Oceans

A  scientific study has been launched by the British government looking into ocean acidification. The study will take place over 5 years, at a cost of £11 million.

Three of the world's most significant oceans, the Atlantic, the Antartic and the Arctic will be studied to assess the impact of carbon emissions. Also to analyse how undersea ecosystems have been touched by them.

Carbon in the Oceans

Industrial fossil fuel burning is the primary human activity associated with carbon in the oceans, 50 per cent of the CO2 emissions associated with this activity have found their way into the waters. This has caused oceanic PH values to drop by a tenth of a per cent. A further drop of up to 0.35 per cent is forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by the end of 2099.

“Ocean acidification will be one of the biggest environmental concerns of this century, with major and far-reaching impacts”, Huw Irranca-Davies, Nature and Marine Environment Minister, stated.

“We need to understand much more about the scale and nature of the effect CO2 is having on our oceans and marine life.”

Two organisations, Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and Nerc (the Nautral Environment Research Council) has partially provided the study's £11 million funding.