Addressing ocean acidification as part of sustainable ocean development
Date
2012-10-09Metadata
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5829Abstract
Many of the declarations and outcome documents from prior United Nations international
meetings address ocean issues such as fishing, pollution, and climate change, but they do not
address ocean acidification. This progressive alteration of seawater chemistry caused by uptake
of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is an emerging issue of concern that has potential
consequences for marine ecosystems and the humans that depend on them. Addressing ocean
acidification will require mitigation of global CO2 emissions at the international level
accompanied by regional marine resource use adaptations that reduce the integrated pressure on
marine ecosystems while the global community works towards implementing permanent CO2
emissions reductions. Addressing ocean acidification head-on is necessary because it poses a
direct challenge to sustainable development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals,
and it cannot be addressed adequately with accords or geoengineering plans that do not
specifically decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Here, we will briefly review the current
state of ocean acidification knowledge and identify several mitigation and adaptation strategies
that should be considered along with reductions in CO2 emissions to reduce the near-term impacts of ocean acidification. Our goal is to present potential options while identifying some of
their inherent weaknesses to inform decisionmaking discussions, rather than to recommend
adoption of specific policies. While the reduction of CO2 emissions should be the number one
goal of the international community, it is unlikely that the widespread changes and infrastructure
redevelopment necessary to accomplish this will be achieved soon, before ocean acidification’s
short-term impacts become significant. Therefore, a multi-faceted approach must be employed
to address this growing problem.
Description
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Brill for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ocean Yearbook 27, edited by Aldo Chircop, Scott Coffen-Smout, and Moira McConnell, :29-46. Leiden:
Brill (Martinus Nijhoff), 2013. ISBN:
9789004250451.
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Suggested Citation
Book chapterPreprint: Cooley, Sarah R., Mathis, Jeremy T., "Addressing ocean acidification as part of sustainable ocean development", https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5829Related items
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