‘Hot, sour and breathless’

The world’s oceans are becoming increasingly acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 300 million years, a new report reveals.

The 26-page report issued by 540 scientists from around the world found that the combination of increased carbon in the water; increased CO2 in the atmosphere from fossil-fuel burning; and reduced oxygen movement in oceans due to increasing water temperature are combining to “amplify each other,” said report co-author Ulf Riebesell, a biochemist at Germany’s GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, quoted in an article at SFGate.com. Scientists, Riebesell noted, are increasingly referring to the future state of the world’s oceans as “hot, sour and breathless.”

Such news bodes ill for species such as squid, which “can only live in waters at certain temperature, acidity and oxygen levels,” the article said.