Science Partnership for Global Change Education
Solution
Ocean Acidification
While there is no quick fix to the multitude of climate change impacts, there are an amazing array of ideas being explored to help us adapt to the changes that climate change brings and mitigate future impacts. We hope this section is a beacon of hope within a tough subject.
Bringing climate change issues into your classroom can be daunting since there are so many devastating ways we are affected. Wherever we look, the news about climate and weather is dire and catastrophic. Highlighting solutions and actions we can take as individuals or as a society helps change the narrative and emotions about climate change.
Our goal in this section is to provide inspiration and hope for ourselves and our students. We can solve this! And here are some things that are being done or some amazing ideas that are being researched. We hope you share these ideas with your student to empower them to be part of the solution.
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Combatting Ocean Acidification
The oceans are the main CO2 sink at the Earth’s surface. CO2 is 150 times more concentrated in oceans than air ( by volume).
In fact, ocean algae suck 30-40% of greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis. But due to burning of fossil fuels and industrialization we are pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere than the ocean can uptake. This excess CO2 is making the ocean more acidic.
Researchers at MIT are exploring a two step ”electrochemical process that draws CO2 out of seawater. The first step uses electricity to temporarily acidify the water, which encourages the removal of CO2 . A second step removes the acidity and collets the CO2 .
The removed CO2 could be made into fuels such as ethanol or products such as concrete. Or the captured CO2 can be put into underground geologic storage areas such as depleted oil reservoirs.
For more about this potentially amazing process that could save our ocean read this article:
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