Oceans Found to Absorb Half of All Man-Made Carbon Dioxide

[Ivan Seeking]

Around half of all carbon dioxide produced by humans since the industrial revolution has dissolved into the world's oceans—with adverse effects for marine life—according to two new studies.
Scientists who undertook the first comprehensive look at ocean storage of carbon dioxide found that the world's oceans serve as a massive sink that traps the greenhouse gas. [continued]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0715_040715_oceancarbon.html

[Ivan Seeking]

I should have included this in the original quote
The researchers say the oceans' removal of the carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere has slowed global warming.

But in a second, related study, scientists say the sink effect is now changing ocean chemistry. The resulting change has slowed growth of plankton, corals, and other invertebrates that serve as the most basic level of the ocean food chain. The impacts on marine life could be severe, scientists say.

No free rides?

[Andre]

Well it seems that the alarmists and the publishers have their free rides again. GMAB :yuck:

How convenient that the global warmists overlooked that tiny but well known detail in the general global carbon cycle a decade or so ago, then they could use it to offer their scary scenarios, now they can use it for their retreat now, as apparently the global warming has stopped .

Any idea what the ratio between CO2 in the air and in the ocean water is and what numbers we are talking about? I'll check later. Maxed out at the moment.

Then there is the chemical buffer effect, more CO2 dissolves more limestone that brings the pH back up again. Balance will be restored quickly. It has happened many times in the past with much more catastrophic pH changes like the clathrate gun 55 million years ago.

Perhaps somebody remembers at last that carbon dioxide is going around in a cycle. If the flux in one part of the cycle increases, eventually the whole cycle will speed up preventing accumulation. The carbon in the sea will help restore biomass (after emptying the oceans with fishing) and eventually it will end up as clathrate, waiting for the next explosion to restart the cycle.

But in the mean time we could amuse ourselves by counting the errors in that article.

[Andre]

As a counter this time, I'd recommend this paper:

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/econ-persp.pdf

[Rader]

If carbon dioxide produced by humans since the industrial revolution has dissolved into the world's oceans, has the other half been consumed by forests, since the level has only slighly been modified and the increase seems to be due to deforestation?