• Coral Reefs are being lost more than twice as fast as the rainforests. Current estimates reveal that we will lose the other 50% over the next 40 years.
• The Great Barrier Reef generates over 6.5 billion dollars in tourism revenue and 63,000 jobs.
• Left unchecked Ocean Acidification could trigger a Great Mass Extinction Event. Growing evidence suggests that four of the five Great Mass Extinctions have been associated with rapidly acidifying oceans – due to spikes in the concentration of atmospheric CO2.
• The huge amounts of atmospheric CO2 being absorbed by the world’s oceans is making them more acidic than they have been for tens of millions of years.
• Coral Reefs provide habitat for at least a quarter of all marine species. Many of these face extinction if reefs disappear.
• The biodiversity and splendour of coral reefs are at risk of disappearing for thousands of years. This places in jeopardy an estimated 500 million people who depend on coral reefs for their daily food and income.
• The Great Barrier Reef generates over 6.5 billion dollars in tourism revenue and 63,000 jobs.
• If atmospheric CO2 can be stabilised at 450 ppm, (one possible target that has been discussed by politicians) only 8% of existing tropical and subtropical coral reefs will still be in waters of the right pH level to support their growth.
• Within decades, Ocean Acidification will also start to have major impacts on temperate and polar water ecosystems. In fact, colder water absorbs higher levels of CO2 than warmer water. Our polar seas are already so acidic that they are starting to dissolve some shells.
•

With Sodium chloride also known as Sea Salt with a PH of about 8 and the seas still very salty, I think that claims of CO2 acidifying the sea are Scientific fiction. Organisms in the sea need co2 as a food just as plants do. If the Scientists want to create a Demon it should at least be Credible. Ph 7 is neutral so sea water is strongly basic, not even remotely acidic. Bah Humbug.Why didn't everyone do basic Chemistry and they would see the waste products of the bull, for what it is.

1. Introduction
[2] About one third of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide
(CO2) released since the start of the Industrial Revolution in
the 1800s has been taken up by the oceans [Sabine et al.,
2004]. This excess CO2 is altering the basic ocean chemistry,
specifically the marine carbonate system [Feely et al.,
2008]. Carbon dioxide that dissolves in the surface water
forms carbonic acid. The increased concentrations of CO2 in
the atmosphere and surface ocean have led to a decrease in
ocean pH by 0.1 units over the past 200 years [Caldeira and
Wickett, 2003]. Observational studies over the last two
decades in the subtropical gyre in the North Atlantic have
shown a decrease in pH that can be correlated to the increased
dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations in the surface
water [Bates, 2007]. Caldeira and Wickett [2003, 2005] used
an ocean climate model to simulate the 21st century response
of the ocean carbon system to the A1B, A2, B1, and B2
emission scenarios published by the IPCC [2000]. Their
results project pH decreases by 2100 of 0.3–0.5.
[3] The most direct impact of a lower pH on the biota
arises from lowered carbonate ion concentration in seawater.
This affects organisms that form calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
shells and skeletons. Recent efforts to understand the
impacts of ocean acidification on marine organisms have
revealed diverse and complex responses [e.g., Fabry, 2008;
Fabry et al., 2008]. Further research on the responses of
individual organisms and ecosystems is needed before the
effects of ocean acidification can be reliably predicted.

Peter Vexatious, your comprehension is pretty poor. Firstly it isn't sodium chloride that pushes seawater's pH up to about 8. Secondly I repeat what I said to Hasbeen:
I think you may misunderstand what ocean acidification is. It DOESN'T mean the ocean won't continue to be less acidic tthan pure water; it means the ocean is more acidic than it was, which is a problem because it increases the solubility of the calcium carbonate shells of many marine creatures.

It is true that algae need CO2, but there's plenty of dissolved carbonates so even at preindustrial levels of CO2 there wouldn't be a shortage.

Dear Peter,

<<The greatest cartel still allowed to act as such, is the Legal Cartel, and despite the best intentions of the whole Parliament of the Commonwealth in a whole raft of legislation, they give the Parliament the Big Finger.>>

With due respect, the greatest cartel in Australia is not the legal profession, but Medical Doctors, headed by the AMA Mafia.

Their exclusive control of substances otherwise unavailable to the public; their exclusive right to open up and modify the human body or otherwise to exercise numerous procedures on it; their power to declare who is alive and who is dead; who may and who may not drive or fly; who is sane and who must be locked up and be drugged against their will; who must work and who may receive a sick-leave or a disability pension; who is medically fit for trial and who isn't; etc. Now add to it the vast amounts of tax-payer dollars they receive - their powers far outweigh that of the legal profession!

Yuyutsu. I like your comment so I have a question. I believe it was less than a year ago some doctors had been caught 'ripping off' the medicare system and greatly benefiting themselves by making I think around up to sixty claims in one day. I never heard of any further investigations or if there were more cases.