WEBVTT - The Water Acidification Problem 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:15.240 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.000 podcast that looks at the future and says, somebody calls you, 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:24.040 you answer quite slowly. I'm Jonvin Strickland and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.599 I I was assuming that you were going to do 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.840 an acid bath song. I had a lot of different 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.639 thoughts on the subject, and ultimately I decided to go 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.879 just one step further removed. Are we all of just 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.880 about the right age to have heard a whole lot 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.080 about acid rain in school when we were kids. I 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.120 think we are. Yeah, I definitely am. And that's what 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.279 we're gonna be talking about water accidification today, and not 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.360 just acid rain, but water acidification in general. What does 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.200 that mean? What? First of all, what does the term mean? Second, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.520 what does that mean to our planet? And third is 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.640 there anything we can do about it? Uh? So? Yeah, 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:08.000 when I was growing up, acid rain was like one 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.080 of those buzzwords that I remember hearing frequently. Let me 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:13.480 let me tell you what was like growing up in 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:18.040 the in the early to mid eighties. So acid rain 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:23.360 big concern, probably second only to communism. It sounds like 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.080 I'm making a joke, but I'm really Yeah, no, I 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.080 I was there. I remember. Yeah, as a kid, it 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.680 was weird getting this because I didn't know what communism 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.120 was as a kid. I just knew it was supposedly awful, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:37.959 but you knew what acid was. It's that big vat 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.840 of stuff that the bad guy hangs Batman over on 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:45.600 a rope before Batman escapes. Pretty much, that's it's very 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.320 close to what my conception was of the idea of 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.480 what acid was. Therefore what acid rain must be. And 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:54.240 this is this is despite the fact that all of 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.040 us kind of grew up. I mean, it's certainly like 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.720 the seventies nineties were a golden age, a very weird, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:05.080 very earnest outreach to children about environmental issues. Outreach is 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.080 a cute word, because because we kids had so much 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:12.600 power over the massive amounts of pollution being poured into 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.440 our environment. We we we mentioned fern Gully in the 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:21.360 last episode, Azing mentioned it recently, one of the in 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.480 a couple of the last episodes at anyway. Yeah, yeah, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.200 for Fern Gully, the last rainforest. There was also Captain Planet, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.880 which was pretty amazing. Um. Of course, of course Dr 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.919 Seuss Lorax and David the Gnome, and like the Final 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.840 Fantasy series and the work that Miyazaki was doing over 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.680 in Japan that wouldn't make it over here for another 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.560 few years, but was still part of the ovoir of 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.480 the time, Like Nasca of the Valley of Wind. I 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:47.720 feel like in this list you're kind of mixing together 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.800 some things that are like wonderful pieces of art with 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:55.560 environmental themes and then just pure propaganda. Well, to be fair, 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.480 it was all part of the spectrum that was coming 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.760 out towards us kids. I gotta tell you, it did 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.760 convince me to shut down my coal gas firing plant 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.320 and that I was using to really run my he 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.920 manuh toys. You know what it did convince me to 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.480 do was not to build coal plants in sim city. 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:19.200 It had an effect on that. Really well simulated environment 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:24.120 was as well, go planet, Go planet. Indeed so so okay. 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.440 So all of these media were really good at convincing 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.880 us that the Earth was in terrible trouble, possibly even 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.959 our own sim sim Earth. But maybe they weren't as 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.560 good at explaining what any of these things actually were. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:42.640 It's possible that either they were poorly uh written attempts 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.120 to explain this like it was getting across the fact 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.960 that this was These were important issues, but as a kid, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.240 I was not absorbing the actual information of what the 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:56.119 stuff meant. I was misinterpreting it. In my mind, acid rain, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.960 if it were to actually be a thing that happened 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.080 in my neighborhood, it would that were I had to 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.520 get caught out in it, I would melt away like 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.280 the wicked Witch of the West, or like the Nazis 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:07.880 at the end of Raiders at the Lost Start. It 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.880 would be another example and also raised lost art played 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.840 a very important role in my childhood, so that definitely 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.160 was one of the images going through my mind. Whenever 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.960 I heard the phrase acid rain, I figured it literally 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:26.760 meant it must be raining. Acid. Um, well, you could argue, yeah, 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.880 but acid is a is a term that children don't 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.120 quite understand the right one. Adult start necessarily understand it 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:38.800 either broad term as well. Acidic things are many things. Yes, 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.720 they have a pH lower than seven point oh. Essentially 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.880 that means that it's acidic. It doesn't necessarily mean that 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.080 it's it's acidic to the point where it could react 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.240 with something like your skin. But as a child, that 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.279 subtlety was lost on me. As an adult, I understand 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.640 it a little bit better. So here's the thing. Yeah, 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.560 it wasn't like this rain was going to melt the 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.680 flesh off of my bones and I was going to 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.039 be standing there as a skeleton for a second before 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.080 collapsing into a little pile. But we also shouldn't just 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.880 sit here and mock the past for being concerned about it, 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.240 because acid rain is something that's actually worth being concerned about. Absolutely, 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.039 And so we're gonna spend the first little bit about 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.560 this in this podcast talking about acid rain, and then 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.880 we will transition to talk about ocean acidification. The different 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.400 is two are different, yes, although it's certainly related. Yeah, 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:31.480 I mean in the sense that you don't want either 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.160 to happen. So, so the e p A defines acid 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.000 rain as quote a broad term referring to a mixture 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.159 of wet and dry deposition, which means deposited material from 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.560 the atmosphere containing higher than normal amounts of nitric and 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:50.040 sulfuric acids. So this would be acid rain that actually 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.200 contains nitric acid and sulfuric acid, not again at a 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.359 concentration or intensity strong enough to do physical harm to 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.120 your skin, but it could still harm you in the 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.840 long term. Uh, it's a little different from ocean and centification. 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.360 Ocean a centification really is the accumulation of hydrogen ions 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.960 as a result of this absorption of carbon dioxide. We'll 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.719 get into that in a little bit. So acid rain 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.599 can actually come from natural sources, right, It's not just 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.560 man made. If there's a volcanic eruption, that can end 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:25.599 up injecting quite a bit of uh nitric acid and 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.640 sulfuric acid into the atmosphere, which where it can then 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.960 be absorbed in precipitation and then rained down upon the 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.320 surrounding countryside, even miles or hundreds of miles away from 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.960 where the eruption happened. I was curious to see what's 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.720 what's the worst acid rain we've ever had on Earth? 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.719 And I found an interesting article on smithsonian dot com 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.680 from January talking about the acid rain that probably fell 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.000 during the Great Dying, also known as the Permian tri 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.480 Triassic extinction event. This is also known as the next 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.760 Game of Thrones novel. Yes, yes, this was the worst 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.440 stinction event in every Game of Thrones novel. Fair enough. 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.760 For some reason, I almost just said in human history, 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:07.719 not in human history and the history of the Earth, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.480 of life on Earth. Uh, nine out of every ten 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.960 species are actually more than nine out of every ten 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.600 species on Earth completely wiped out, which it was. It's 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.560 so hard for us to even even fathom that today, right, Yeah, 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.680 the idea that well, I mean, hopefully we'll never have 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.160 to actually witness nine more than of all life forms 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.040 being wiped off the planet. But uh, you know, when 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.320 we think of extinctions, mostly extinctions that we're aware of 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.680 are tiny on a scale compared to this particular one. Yeah, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.360 this thing was horrible. Life on Earth could very well 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.640 have been completely snuffed out for all we know, and maybe, 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.080 as far as we know we barely scraped by not 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.920 we as in humans, but we as in our distant ancestors. Um, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.680 So what caused it? Scientists are still debating this, but 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.320 the usual suspects are called up. There's mass of volcanic eruptions, 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:05.960 usually centered around these the Siberian traps, these Siberian eruptions 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.440 that uh seemed to happen at a particularly bad time 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:15.000 to affect the Earth's atmospheric composition. And then there's also 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:21.320 hypothesized space impacts and maybe bacterial or microbial blooms that 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.040 changed the composition of the atmosphere. There are a lot 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.080 of different hypotheses, but one uh anyway, that the article 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.560 I mentioned talks about a few lines of research pointing 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:35.400 to the theory that this volcanic eruption that's been hypothesized 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.280 as one of the major causes of the extinction event 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:43.360 led to extreme, widespread acid rain. And so according to 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:47.160 to several findings, the carbon dioxide emitted by the Siberian 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.319 volcanism would have lowered the pH of the rain to 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.440 about four, which is they compare that in the article 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.080 to the acidity of tomato juice. I mean, it's not 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.960 acidic enough to burn your skin off, but that's really 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:05.080 acidic for rain, yes. Uh. And then at on top 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.360 of that, the acidifying effects of sulfur dioxide from the 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.760 volcanic eruptions in the northern hemisphere they say may have 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.800 been uh seeing pulses of weather events with rain that's 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.560 as acidic as lemon juice. Lemon juice is nice to 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.600 squirre it over your fish and chips, It is not 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.200 nice to square it over your land masses and oceans, right, 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:27.920 And Uh, I should point out, of course, the acid 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.440 rain that we heard about in the eighties and nineties, 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.400 that was clearly acid rain that was caused by by 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:37.600 human activity. That was the sort of stuff we were 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.440 being warned about, like, stopped this stuff because it's killing 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.360 our planet, the bad guys on Captain planet. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:49.960 that was the industrial revolution. Um, your coal burning factory, right, boy? 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.240 Is my face red? Add of fact that the main 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.400 thing I remember being told as a kid about acid 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.960 rain was that it would discolor our statues and natch 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.160 national monuments, which it would, so that is one thing 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.560 it would do. So yeah, that just seems like a 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:11.800 weird thing to emphasize. Yeah, well, to be fair, it's 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.040 the one thing that stayed with you. It's not necessarily 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.040 the one thing that was stressed above all others. Yeah, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:21.320 but uh, you know, the the the human made acid 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.120 rain that comes from emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.760 both of which are biproducts of fossil fuel combustion. So 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.640 as we depend upon fossil fuels, as we burn those 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.880 fossil fuels, we release these sorts of gases into the 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:39.880 atmosphere where they can end up becoming acid rain. There 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.320 can be some chemical UH processes that then converted into 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:49.120 nitric acid and sulfuric acid and mixed with the precipitation. UH. 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.280 Most of the sulfur dioxide emissions and about a quarter 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.360 of the nitrogen oxide emissions are the results of power 0:10:55.360 --> 0:11:00.720 plants burning coal to produce electricity. So again, my little 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:05.040 coal firing plant was a really bad option. I should 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.320 have gone solar. He man would have told me that 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.199 if I paid attention at the last thirty seconds of 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.600 every episode where the little educational p s a would 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.439 come into play, But I always turned it off at 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.960 that point because I wasn't there to learn things. Darn it. 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.240 What were the what were the power plant options in 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.760 sim City before sim City two thousand? Was a just 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.600 coal and nuclear? Was that about it? I think giant 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.679 hamsters were also. I think it was just nuclear at 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.720 any rate. So when those emissions are released in the atmosphere, 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.720 the components react chemically with other stuff like water, oxygen, 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.520 other airborne chemicals that are already up there, and that 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.360 creates that mild sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and so 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.320 you me I mentioned wet and dry deposition. Acid rain 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.240 is wet deposition. It means that you're actually depositing this 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:58.040 acid through rain. Other types include fog and snow. Yeah, 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.120 acid fog, which I'm pretty an the Surewood just that 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.280 should be the sequel to the John Carpenter movie, you know, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:10.200 the exactly then everyone just tripping out as the fog 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.000 is coming in and be that kind. So then uh, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.120 sulfuric and nitric Nitric acid mixed with wet weather fall 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.440 to the ground during rainstorms, and this acid rain can 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:22.319 damage plants and animals and change the acidity levels and 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.840 bodies of water like streams, lakes, and ponds. The actual 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:31.920 effects of acid rain depend on lots of different factors, 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.440 so you can't give like a blanket statement that says 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.120 here's how it's going to affect this region. There are 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.679 a lot of things that will determine that, such as 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:45.240 what is the acidity level, how bad, how concentrated is 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.960 the acid in the rain itself? What is the buffering 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.400 capacity of the soil to handle acidic water. Some soils 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.959 can absorb it and hold onto it uh more effectively 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.720 than others. Some it's going to run off right into 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.600 whatever water bodies. Water are nearby, Um, things like marshes 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.840 and stuff. You have a lot of very delicate types 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.239 of animals and plants that can be very dramatically affected 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.640 by changes in acidity levels. Uh, it's you know, things 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:14.640 like you know, we often think of frogs as an 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.600 early indicator species. That's one of the ones that we 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.240 would be looking at in areas around where acid rain 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.839 is happening, because they tend to be pretty sensitive to 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:28.240 those kind of changes. Uh. Then you also have to 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.640 take into account like there might be some species of 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.600 plants and animals in certain areas that are a little 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.000 more hardy. They can they can handle bigger changes in 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:41.400 acidity levels without it dramatically affecting their health. In those cases, 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.440 you might not even be aware that acid rain is 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:49.720 a factor because you're not seeing the the consequences, at 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.800 least not right away. So, uh, it's not a one 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.160 size fits all kind of thing by any stretch of 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:00.120 the imagination. And as Joe is pointing out earlier, the 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.319 message he took home from all of this acid rain 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.960 talk when he was a kid, it can cause damage 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.400 demand made structures, including ones that are irreplaceable. No, Yeah, 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.679 like those statues, you know, like ancient statues or monuments, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.120 that kind of thing where you know, I think this 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:21.480 specific example I remember was something about the the what's 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.720 it called Mount Rushmore? I was going to say, was 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.840 it Mount Rushmore? Because I feel like that was a 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.400 big thing that was impressed upon me as a child. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:34.200 It's still a big thing. These heads are enormous. I'm sorry, 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.200 can you can you actually climb out their nose holes? That? 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.240 I can't? Pretty sure you cannot. I can't. I have 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.520 you know, I have never been to Mount Rushmore. It's 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.640 when it's still on my list. But uh, and I 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.080 guess I need to get there before the acid rain hits, because, 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.360 appoint to you guys, those heads are living on borrowed time. 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.600 According to my memory of my childhood, it may very 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.240 well be that they're completely safe. I'm just considering it 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.160 infallible at this point. So also, the acid rain can 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.120 cause direct harm to our health. I mean, we're joking 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.920 about this largely because it's a defense mechanism at some point. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:10.800 You know, you've gotta you've got to be able to 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.040 lighten up things. But it really can cause harm to us. Now, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.720 the acidity, as we said, isn't enough to harm you 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.480 directly through your skin, So you're not gonna be walking 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.640 out there and rain starts to fall on you. You 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.440 see like little plumes of smoke where it's hitting your 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.840 skin and you can feel it bubbling. That's not happening. No, No, 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.280 even drinking it isn't really going to do you any harm. Yeah, 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.440 it turns out you got acid in your stomach and 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:42.480 it's pretty strong, um, way stronger than the acidity levels 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.000 in the an acid rain. So I mean, if you 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.200 already drink Coca cola, that's fairly acidic, right, Yeah. I 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.400 mean there's a lot of lemon juice, like you said before, 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.640 very acidic, and we can ingest that without problems. I 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.240 mean most of us. Some of us get a sensitivity 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.000 to it, and after a little while your mouth might 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.760 start to hurt, but that's that's kind of the extent 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.920 of it. But breathing in those acids, when they're in 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.400 the atmosphere, that is a problem, and that can lead 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.880 to long term health complications, everything from asthma to bronchitis 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:16.760 to even heart disorders. So it's serious stuff. Obviously, the 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.720 biggest solution to this problem is to find other methods 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.680 of generating power and other and all the other fossil 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.720 fuel uses that we have. Getting off fossil fuels and 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:33.000 using something else. That's the big solution to acid rain. 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.440 It's you've got to look at what is causing the 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.720 acid rain. Can you affect what that is? Because otherwise 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.960 all you're doing is treating symptoms, right, and that's that's 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.120 a losing game in the long run. So, uh, well, 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.480 I'm all for treating some symptoms if it could you 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:53.520 help us not get asthma. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, in the 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.120 in the short term, in the acute sense, absolutely, But 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.040 if you want to to solve things for the longer term, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.119 you've got to You've got to address the fossil fuel problem. Now. 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.600 The other issue that we're going to talk about today, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.439 the different but I guess related issue in that it 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.600 also deals with pollution and acidity, is ocean acidification. Yeah, 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:16.879 and by acidity in this sense, we're not saying that 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.360 the oceans themselves are turning acidic, correct, but they are, well, 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.199 you could say they're becoming more acidic even though they 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.000 are not acidic, right, they they themselves aren't on the 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.520 acid end of the pH scale. No, the ocean is 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.960 so basic. It's it's pretty basic. I mean, it's big, 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.480 it's wet, covers most of the planet. How more much 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.679 more basic can you get? But now again to explain 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.800 the PhD, so we say seven is neutral. Scale goes 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.639 from zero to fourteen. Anything above a seven is a base, 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:48.840 below a seven is an acid, and the ocean is 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.879 what it's like seven points something yet's it's it's above seven. 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.880 It's in on the basics slightly slightly basic scale. It's 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.480 between seven and eight, and it's closer to seven than eight. 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.240 But when we talk about ocean a centification, we talk 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.520 about that number going down slightly. So it's still on 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.200 the basic end of the spectrum, but it's lower than 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.000 what it would naturally be otherwise. So according to woods Whole, 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.479 ocean a graphic institution. I'll just call it woods Hole 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:20.560 because when I say ocean a graphic it sounds like 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.480 I'm having some sort of episode. I'm having issues with 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.640 talking today. Don't know what the big deal is, Joe. 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.960 I just for some reason today that word is just 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.080 tripping me up. But at any rate, it's a multi uh. 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.400 They say that studying ocean and centification involves a multi 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:41.240 disciplinary field of research, and it includes quote counter intuitive 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:46.600 end quote aspects such as carbonate chemistry carbonate as in 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.440 C A R B O in A T E carbonate 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.160 And uh, it's a little they say counterintuitive because once 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.600 you start looking into this, it sounds like the opposite 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:04.040 thing is happening what you would expect. And because of that, 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.879 it makes it particularly difficult to educate people and also 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.000 to get across to the media the subtleties of what 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.200 ocean and centification is all about. And uh, and I 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.199 fully appreciate that. So we're gonna try our best to 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.760 be as accurate as we possibly can, but keep in 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.000 mind this is complicated stuff. Yeah, it's one of those 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.080 things where like the issue is that Earth's oceans are 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.000 are big, like really big kind of thing. Um, there's 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.880 more ocean than truck. There's more ocean than truck. And uh, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.520 and like trucks, oceans have a lot of moving parts. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.399 Like like literally every molecule of water that makes up 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.560 all of the oceans is probably moving right now. I 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:47.800 don't want to freak you guys out, don't think about 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.680 it too hard. Uh, And every single one of those 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.760 molecules is interconnected and there's like a lot of fish 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.000 and stuff. So you're connected. Now, you don't mean in 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.040 a deepac choper a kind of sense. You mean in 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.119 like a fluid dynamics and if a dynamic sense more so, yes, right, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.040 if you were to push against some of those molecules, 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.320 they would push against other molecules that would push against 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.040 other molecules, and so on and so forth, and a 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:10.879 butterfly with flap its wings, and then you would get 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.600 acid rain outside of my house. That's the way I 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.880 understand it. At any rate. I hate this fossil fuel 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.159 burning butterflies. They are the worst. They're so loud to 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:22.840 I gotta tell you. Okay, but what what actually is 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.520 ocean acidification? We sort of explained it, but it's it's 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.400 the oceans pH becoming lower, not necessarily being an acid, 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:33.159 but becoming more relatively acidic, right compared to what it 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:37.040 was before exactly, And it's primarily caused by carbon dioxide 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:41.400 dissolving into seawater. So now now you may have actually heard, 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.320 I bet you've heard people who are trying to say, oh, 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.920 you know, global warming, climate change, it's no big deal 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:53.080 because the oceans will absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.640 It's not partially it's partially true, and that the oceans 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:00.800 will as long as the carbon dioxide concentrate, the atmosphere 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.439 goes up, and it goes up higher than what the 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.760 ratio between water and atmosphere typically is than the water 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.840 compensates by absorbing some of that CEO too. Now, it's 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.280 not true that that means climate change is no big deal. 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.400 It also is not true that that that means that, hey, 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.560 we're okay, because if the carbon dioxide goes into the ocean, 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:25.480 who cares, right, because it turns out yeah, yeah. And 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.600 so what's going on with this, with this equilibrium thing here, 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:32.159 is that when there's less carbon dioxide in the surface 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.240 of the ocean than there is in the lower atmosphere, 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.399 that the physical system that is that air and water 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.240 is out of equilibrium. So so the water is going 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.320 to try to absorb some of the carbon dioxide to 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:47.280 even things out. And it doesn't happen instantaneously. According to 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.360 the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it takes about 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.000 a year for the system to reach equilibrium. Every time 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.040 there's an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.160 has been happening more or less constantly as far as 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.040 we can track it back, for decades and decades. On 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:06.879 a molecular level, what's going on here is that the 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.440 carbon dioxide in the water react form carbonic acid, which 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.280 is a type of molecule that can lose protons, which 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.640 acidifies the water, decreasing the pH as. We've been talking 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:23.400 about protons being hydrogen ions, right, because you get a hydrogen, 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:26.440 you lose the electron. You've got a proton that's a 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:30.440 hydrogen ion. And that's that's essentially what we talked about. 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:32.480 Whenever you're talking about to sit, uh, you know, something 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.040 becoming more acidic, you're really talking about accumulation of hydrogen 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:40.000 ions on a very simple chemical level. I almost said basic, 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.160 but that would have been so misleading. Uh So, Yeah, 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:45.320 the ocean absorbs about a quarter of all the carbon 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:50.320 dioxide we released into the atmosphere. Well, in some senses, 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.879 like if it didn't do that, then the rate of 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.840 climate change we are observing would go even faster. However, 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.840 the tradeoff is we have this increase in uh, the 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:04.600 acidification of the oceans, and as it turns out, that 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:09.199