OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
A MAN ON A MISSION
A mission of mine is to do my part to warn people of the dire consequences of ocean acidification. This webpage and the story I have published are the means through which I will exert that effort. I pledge that half of all profits from any eventual sale of the story in any form will go towards ocean acidification research and education. We are all in this together, as we all share the burden.
My Doomsday Story About Ocean Acidification
Imagine no more coral reefs because calcium-based structures dissolve. Next, imagine phytoplankton that grow microscopic plates, like coccolithophores, dying for the same reason. Then realize that the loss of phytoplankton results in declining ocean and atmospheric oxygen levels, resulting in mass starvation due to reduced oceanic and crop productivity. The rioting follows. Civil war erupts. Nations make war. It will be doomsday for sure. So, what do we do? If you read my story you might get some ideas.
My novella entitled "Ocean Acidification and the Apocalypse" is now available at Amazon.
Search Ocean Acidification at Amazon for books you may browse for free.
I have an alternative or extended two chapter ending to the story below. I am not sure about using it because it is quite a departure from the story line and may distract readers from the core elements of the story. However, I request that readers have a look at it and advise me on whether I should include it in the story, offer it as an alternative ending, or use it as the basis of a sequel.
Thank you very much,
John Arfstrom
jarfstrom@gmail.com
A Pope's Ray of Hope: Is Pope Francis a Real Saint Science?
"Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world. The effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced by our decisive action, here and now. We need to reflect on our accountability before those who will have to endure the dire consequences."
From - ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME
I hope that the Pope's influence on the global warming/ocean acidification front will help to bridge the gap between the Left and Right on environmental conservation. I think that it would be better for the Right to embrace science and environmentalism to a greater degree than they do, and focus more on the aspects of liberalism versus conservatism as they apply to people and families. By meeting the Left in the middle on the global warming/ocean acidification front, the Right will loose fewer voters to these environmental and other science related issues, while doing more to save the world and conserve their values in the process. Likewise, the Left will be less likely to shun the conservative values of the Right as many young people tend to do when they mush-mind the environmental-related with the people-related views of the Right, and so rebel against the Right in its entirety. We need the power of God and Science to save the world and humanity, as Pope Francis, being a chemist and theologian, would logically and spiritually (or philosophically) understand, much like my ocean acidification story character John, Saint Science.
The Last Farewell
I have no fear of death; it brings no sorrow
But how bitter will be this last farewell
For you are beautiful
And I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell
Though death and darkness gather all about me
And my ship be torn apart upon the seas
I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands
In the heaving waves that brought me once to thee
- adapted from Roger Whittaker
Science Related to My Story
Articles on the relationships of ocean acidification, coccolithophores and other calcareous phytoplankton, and oceanic and atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide. Of particular interest is how ocean acidification kills the most important oxygen producing organisms, for both the oceanic and atmospheric regimes, and how iron fertilization of the oceans may help to fight ocean acidification as part of a global mitigation effort.
http://www.sciencearchive.org.au/nova/106/106key.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification
http://www.scor-int.org/OBO2009/A&O_Report.pdf
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/O2DroppingFasterThanCO2Rising.php
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Articles on the Productivity of Plants and Oxygen Concentrations
"all plant cells need oxygen to live, because without oxygen they can't perform aerobic respiration (respiration is the process of breaking down food to get energy)." http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=760
"Although oxygen is a by-product of photosynthesis, plants lack a circulatory system to mobilize oxygen to heterotrophic roots, tubers, meristems, germinating pollen, and developing seeds."
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/152/3/1484.full
"Low oxygen enhancement of photosynthesis declined with time and after 10 d, leaf area and root dry weight were less than in plants grown in normal air." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/2/159
"In aerobic organisms oxygen is a rate-limiting substrate for the efficient production of energy...Despite their ability to produce oxygen in the presence of light, plants can experience low oxygen conditions when the oxygen diffusion from the environment cannot satisfy the demand set by metabolic rates."
Low-Oxygen Stress in Plants
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Science on Climate Change, including global warming, ice ages, and "Snowball Earth".
A documentary on the phenomenon known as "Snowball Earth"
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/snowball-earth/
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/LOG3.php
Ocean Acidification Resources
Documentaries
YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY -
“COLLAPSE OF THE OCEANS” with JOSHUA JACKSON (PT 1)
https://www.facebook.com/YearsOfLiving/videos/1270907326329656/
“COLLAPSE OF THE OCEANS” with JOSHUA JACKSON (PT 2)
https://www.facebook.com/YearsOfLiving/videos/1281660528587669/
Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean
Acidification (NRDC - youtube)
Hosted by Sigourney Weaver
The Death of the Oceans?
BBC/horizon/dailymotion
Hosted by David Attenborough
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/death-oceans/
Lethal Seas (NOVA - PBS)
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/lethal-seas.html
Ocean Acidification - Revolution World Issue
Revolution Movie
NOAA Ocean Acidification - The Other Carbon Dioxide Problem
GlobalClimateNews
Scientific Presentations
Rob Dunbar: The threat of ocean acidification
TED Talks
Acidic Oceans: Why Should We Care? - Perspectives on Ocean Science
University of California Television
Acidifying the Ocean: Assessing Impacts on Coral Reefs
University of California Television
Educational Media
Ocean acidification explained in two minutes
grist
Demystifying ocean acidification and biodiversity impacts
California academy of Sciences
NOAA Ocean Acidification Demonstration
A Sea Change
Imagine A World Without Fish
(Niijii Films/Bullfrog Films)
Other Resources
Strategic Plan for Federal Research and Monitoring of Ocean Acidification https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/iwg-oa_strategic_plan_march_2014.pdf