Never let them escape by hiding those original pH numbers. The pH supposedly went from -8.1 to -7.7, remember pH is a logaritmic scale (powers of base 10).
Something they reveal in their Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification is more telling than they would want us to understand. Oyster farmers learned to not draw in water until later in the day after the algae had plenty of time in the sunlight to convert CO2 to oxygen. Of course, they never tell the flip side of the story --- at night and on dark days, the algae switch and use oxygen and give off CO2.
Swarms of mini-quakes, small earthquakes have been noted in Western Washington in March and April 2012 (maybe other times) Map. Many of those on April 19th were near Deming, which is close to Mt. Baker. A little volcanic activity perhaps soon? Wouldn't there be some CO2 releases? The map shows a lot of activity that could release CO2 into Hood Canal.
Add ref to those old papers found in truck re: dying birds on coast. Peninsula Daily News: One on Dec 1, 2009, page C2, "Unraveling an oceanic mystery." Subtitle: "Scientists pursue cause behind killer algal blooms." The other on Nov 1, 2009, page D1, "Nature's 'oil spill': Algae kills seabirds." Subtitle: "Researchers puzzled by big outbreak."
The Nov one --- "But they do not know exactly why it suddenly burst into deadly profusion for the first time off the Northwest coast this fall ..." (It being the algae bloom). And, re the particular algae, "It has been blamed for red tides off Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Hong Kong. My book on algae (written in 1938?) said that scientist thought such algae were responsible for the naming of the red sea. Not that new, eh? My book also told about such a bloom off the Florida coast in 1910. Enough of the fear mongering. The article claims the ocean was about 5 degree Fahrenheit warmer than usual, and the salinity dropped. (Did They consider a later than usual and larger snow melt? Another tidbit, "In the summer, low-oxygen areas or dead zones plague Northwest waters, killing crabs, fishes, and other marine life. (Tends to not support volcanoes because of seasonality. Implies bigger role for algae, but not if additional CO2 from volcanoes manifests when algae bloom in summer/fall).
)The Dec piece, "Researchers are trying to guage whether warming surface waters or more corrosive seas might have played a role in the two algal blooms ..." Huh, two? Could be off Oregon for one and off Washington for two. Needs more careful reading, perhaps. "Corrosive seas" is as close to mentioning CO2 as they came. I noted a reluctance to mention CO2 in any context except global warming, climate change/disruption unil very recently. (I think I'll take credit for that because of my exposure of Jan Newton and NOAA).
Problem still of the missing oxygen. This is what bothered Jan Newton (see our stuff on Hood Canal). In fact, she would not mention CO2. She would only speak about low oxygen. Even when discussing algae, she would not say CO2 and lied that there food is something else. Now, the powers that be have jumped on the excess CO2 thing. I haven't looked, but I wonder what Newton is saying now.
If CO2 has increased ten percent or approximately 35 ppm, then expect oxygen to decrease 35 ppm, but this would not be a ten percent decrease in oxygen. The oxygen content of air is 20 percent, 200,000 ppm. The 35 ppm for oxygen is an insignificant decrease, 0.0175 percent. So, where did the rest of the oxygen go?
No mechanism is offered to explain how a puny increase in the so-called global level results in high concentrations in certain local areas. What happened to the laws of physics and chemistry regarding the distribution of gases in a liquid? Yes, I know. Such minor considerations have never interrupted their flow of lies in the past.
The current line seems to be that the septic tanks and leaves all of a sudden have caused this. But, I don't think they can show it happens everywhere there are leaves and septic systems. They claim that more stuff is getting into our waterways and then decomposing on the bottom and making the CO2. Newton could only say removing the oxygen.
The next part of their scenario is that this water without oxygen and high in CO2 is then "welling up," and causing the "acidic waters."
I have a problem believing there is more stuff on the bottom decomposing now than there was in the past. Think about when there were many more fish and whales out there. They didn't crawl up on land to die. If they did their remains would have washed out to sea eventually just like the leaves. Weren't there more leaves back then also? Ask yourself why we have oil? Most, at least enough, of the stuff that once went to the bottom did not decompose. It couldn't because all of the oxygen was already used up by other stuff that went to the bottom and managed to decompose.
And, they have another problem. They want to ignore the volcanic activity they have reported off the Oregon and Washington coast. There was a report March 29, 2012 of a swarm of mini-quakes in Puget Sound thought to be a precursor of a large quake. There is a story out the last couple days about the BLM wanting to lease land around Mount Baker to companies who will use "volcanic heat to generate electicity." Makes it more likely that CO2 is venting out under Puget Sound and Hood Canal.
Gov. Gregoire convenes panel to study ocean acidification http://www.governor.wa.gov/news/news-view.asp?pressRelease=1884&newsType=1 "Ocean acidification occurs as oceans accumulate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, from polluted land runoff and other sources." "For more information: www.ecy.wa.gov/water/marine/oceanacidification.html"
From this last ecy.wa.gov website: "What is ocean acidification? The world’s oceans absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. As the oceans soak up excess carbon emissions, the chemistry of the seawater changes — both locally and globally. This absorption alters the ocean’s natural acid-base balance. This move toward a lower pH value is called ocean acidification. Read more about why ocean acidification is a problem in Washington." Contact: Hedia Adelsman, Dept. of Ecology, hedia.adelsman@ecy.wa.gov, 360-407-6222. Contact the members of the panel also. All of the pH change is blamed upon CO2 atmosphere here. Curious that they put in the "both locally and globally" wording. What do they have in mind? Check the funding entities.
Copyright © 2012 Donald L. Beeman. All rights reserved.