Tuesday, November 24, 2009

NYT 11/19/09 Oceans' Absorption of Fuel Emissions Is Slowing, Study Suggests

The Earth's oceans have been absorbing carbon dioxide from fuel emissions but recent studies have found that they are less efficient now. It started slowing in the 1980s but has become increasingly slower since 2000. The slowdown is due in part from absorbing the carbon dioxide which changes the chemistry and makes it more acidic and less able to absorb. There was some really scientific process on how they determined the absorbtion rate and Dr. Khatiwala's approach provides estimates on the ocean carbon storage from 1765 to 2008. Kinda sucks that the natural cleaners are becoming less useful at a time when we are increasingly contributing to the release of carbon emissions. Hopefully the chemical change can be reversed or improve if we are able to cut down on our carbon emissions.

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