The Krill is Gone

Global warming is the gift that just keeps on giving. Spreading disease-carrying insects to new lands. Intensifying tropical storms while creating high heat and wilderness fires elsewhere. Decimating coastal communities with sea rises and storm surges. Peppering the planet with droughts while gifting other regions into death-defying swift current flooding. Forcing migrations, fomenting ethnic wars and creating chaotic unpredictability everywhere. Meanwhile, official Washington policy is “it’s a hoax, climate always changes but mankind had nothing to do with it, and anything to the contrary is just fake news.” 

Well climate change fans, I’ve got one more for you. What happens when you increase the levels of carbon dioxide, not just as a greenhouse effect, but to our oceans? “Since the first coal-burning fires of the Industrial Age, about 30% of the atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by humans has been absorbed by our surging seas. 

“Oceanic absorption of carbon dioxide varies somewhat with latitude. The colder the water, the more readily carbon dioxide will dissolve in it. The Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, absorbs about 10% more carbon dioxide than other seas. 

“When carbon dioxide combines with seawater, it undergoes a series of chemical reactions that increase the acidity of the water. The same chemical reactions also reduce the availability of calcite and aragonite, two carbonate minerals that are needed for the shell-building process.” James B. McClintock, professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, writing for the September 6th Los Angeles Times. 

You might be getting the impression that perhaps increasing oceanic acidity just might not be so good for shellfish, and you would be correct. But increased acidity plays hob with so many more sea creatures, upsetting an ecological balance that ripples up and down the food chain and throws our entire ecosystem out of balance. 

“Marine life is reacting to the acidification of our oceans, and not in a good way. In some coastal regions, oysters, clams and snails are struggling to produce and maintain their shells. The tiny offspring of these animals are particularly vulnerable. 

“Coral reef ecosystems are also at risk. Half of the coral in the Great Barrier Reef has died since 2016 in a catastrophic bleaching event exacerbated by acidification. 

“Marine biologists and chemists have established that ocean acidification influences not only the ability of marine organisms to make and maintain a shell, but also their capacity to grow, reproduce and navigate. 

“Researchers at the University of Tasmania, led by Dr. So Kawaguchi, found that the tiny eggs of krill are less likely to hatch when exposed to ocean acidification. The shrimp-like crustaceans provide sustenance for the majority of fish, seals, penguins and baleen whales that dominate Antarctic food webs. 

“A scientist at the University of Oregon, Dr. Julie Schram, determined that some species of Antarctic amphipods — small, insect-like crustaceans — die after prolonged exposure to ocean acidification, perhaps because they have trouble shedding their exoskeletons. 

“And a team of scientists at the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, led by Dr. Philip Munday, observed that in acidifying conditions, juvenile clownfish lose the ability to relocate their natal reef, a process required for their reproduction. 

“Even sharks are affected. Dr. Danielle Dixson at the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that sharks are less likely to smell their food when exposed to elevated acidification.” McClintock. What we are discovering is that climate change is having its full impact much more rapidly than we had forecast with dozens and dozens of unexpected consequences that materially impact our quality of life... in a really bad way. 

So as the Trump administration continues to lift (or try to lift) officially tolerable fossil fuel emissions levels, allowing greater “dumping” of industrial toxins into the environment, encourage the use of fossil fuels as the most basic energy source and stop demanding increased fuel economy from our trucks and cars, how many people must die, lose their livelihoods, or sustain serious health consequences and mental impairment? How many species must achieve extinction? How many millions of square miles of farmland must be lost and ocean communities abandoned to rising seas? And when exactly do the voters say “enough”? 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am picturing how future generations will view our current wanton and cavalier disregard of the environment... as they face the hardships of living in a seriously altered and hostile future that we created for them.