Environmental quote of the day

Today's topic is a scare that has been around for quite a long time but one that has never really got off the ground - Oceanic Acidification. The most likely reason for this is the lack of dramatic images, such as the carving of icebergs into the ocean, which are available to the global warminists to scare the guano out of the gullible.

"We can choose to make a difference. Just don't drive. Turn off the power. Think about all those millions of plankton making their complex and perfect skeletons. Think about that exhaust, puffing out the back of every car, each little bit of CO2 heading into the air, into the sea, a little drop of poison for our planet. Each of us can make small differences. Think about what you could do, today, to save just one plankton, just one coral. Because a sea without shells is like springtime without birds.".

Associate Professor Abigail M Smith
Geochemist, Marine Science Department, University of Otago.

Additionally first victims of Oceanic Acidification will be humble plankton and shellfish, which don't have the same cuteness factor polar bears do, to tug at our heartstrings and play on our emotions.

So my quote for today is taken from Spectre of seas without shells, an opinion piece published in the Dominion last Wednesday.

And while I am sure that the author of this piece is fully aware, on an intellectual level at least, that defining the acidity of today's oceans and for those of the past is a very slippery matter, her ideological biases seems to trump this knowledge.

Ocean acidity varies both spatially and temporally and we can't ignore the various buffering mechanisms that come into play to moderate the number of free H⁺ ions floating about in attemting to define it globally.

As a geologist the author will also be aware that God's creatures have been creating exoskeletons since Cambrian times, possibly even prior to that and have been doing so in defiance of higher levels of atmospheric CO₂ in days of yore.

And ideology perhaps explains why the chosen quote has the tone of a primary school teacher drilling a class of eight year olds on the dangers that they pose to the ecosphere.

And that is very sad for there is no good reason why we should have to apologize for our existence or for our place in the biosphere. Nor should we be made to feel guilt over trying to make the best of it for ourselves and our children in the here and now.

Anyway my best guess is that plankton and shellfish will be happily creating exoskeletons long after we are dead and buried, blissfully unaware that we ever existed.