Oceans Acidifying Faster Than They Have in Past 300 Million Years

I don't know much about the study but OnEarth Magazine reports on an article in Science, Oceans Acidifying Faster Than They Have in Past 300 Million Years.

"Fifty-six million years ago, a surge of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere raised the acidity of the world's oceans substantially. Many single-celled organisms, and most likely larger creatures farther up the food chain, went extinct.

The carbon dioxide that humans are pumping into the atmosphere now is causing a similar acidification effect -- only 10 times faster.

In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers compared the current rates of ocean change to other major acidification events going back 300 million years, and what they found is shocking: never in that long period did the ocean pH fall as rapidly as it is falling right now (lower pH means higher acidity)."