Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, sunlight is to kill an unknown number of ocean phytoplankton, the planet’s most important organism, a new study reports this week.
Not only are phytoplankton, also known as marine algae, a vital component in the ocean’s food chain, they generate at least half of the oxygen we breathe.
In the not so distant future, sunlight, the very source of life for phytoplankton, will likely begin to kill them because of the ocean’s increasing acidity, researchers from China and Germany have learned.
“There’s a synergistic effect between increased ocean acidity and natural light,” says Ulf Riebesell of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.
Riebesell added that it was also possible “phytoplankton could adapt”.
“Burning fossil fuels has made the oceans about 30 percent more acidic researchers discovered less than 10 years ago.”
Lies, damn lies, and this statistic.
The oceans are not acidic. Not now, not 10 years ago, not a hundred years ago. So we are getting a warning from ignoramouses.
As long as the organisms remain, as they say, “unknown”, they can make any claims about them whatsoever.
Are these scientists really that stupid? No. Once again, they’re just trolling for research money.