Is the Breathing of the World’s Ocean Choking Marine Life?
Videos, Wed, Feb 15th, 2012
Humans currently release about 70 million tons of carbon dioxide every day into the atmosphere and about 20 million tons is being absorbed regularly by the oceans. Scientists monitoring the world’s oceans have observed a substantial increase in the acidity of seawater due to the increasing absorption of human-emitted carbon dioxide. Using present-day emission scenarios, we could see a further increase in acidity of another 150 to 200 percent in this century. In this lecture, Chris Sabine describes current impacts of acidification on marine ecology and projections of likely future impacts on marine life if this trend continues.
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Speakers: Dr. Christopher L. Sabine Oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Download: Presentation (ppt) | Video (high resolution) Dr. Christopher Sabine is the Director of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, WA. His research addresses the role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle. His work centers on interpreting ocean inorganic carbon measurements and understanding ocean acidification. This includes understanding the air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide at the ocean surface, examining basin-scale distributions of both natural and human-emitted carbon in the ocean’s interior, evaluating ocean carbon cycle general circulation models with data-based global carbon distributions, and examining carbonate and organic matter re-mineralization within the open ocean and in coastal environments. Dr. Sabine holds a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Hawaii. He is an affiliate full professor in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Washington and a senior fellow in the university’s Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. For more information click here. Editor’s note: these eight videos comprise a recent “Climate Science 101″ short course sponsored jointly by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), at George Mason University, and NOAA. The presenters in this series were selected for their subject matter expertise. Their views and opinions are their own and don’t necessarily represent those of OLLI and NOAA.
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| Download: presentation (ppt) | video (high res.) | Download: presentation (ppt) | video (high res.) | Download: presentation (ppt) | video (high res.) |
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| Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States Speaker: Anthony C. Janetos Director, Joint Global Change Research Institute This evidence-based presentation makes it clear that climate change isn’t some future abstraction, nor is it a far-off phenomenon happening to people in other parts of the world. | Limiting the Magnitude of & Adapting to Future Climate Change
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Speaker: Dr. Michael MacCracken This session explores of the pros and cons, as well as legal and ethical considerations, involved in options for “geo-engineering.” |
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| Climate Change Communication: Focusing on Public Engagement
Speaker: Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D. A summary about social scientists’ research into Americans’ attitudes and opinions about global climate change. | ||
