Chapter 6:

Kolbert travels to Castello Aragonese, a tiny island out in the Tyrrhenian sea, to investigate the rising carbon dioxide levels. There she meets two marine biologists, Jason Hall-Spencer and Maria Cristina Buia, who take her scuba diving. Underwater she sees bubbles rising from the seafloor and little to no life surrounding them. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been releasing fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Scientists are becoming increasingly worried about the rapid increase of the carbon dioxide levels, “ if the current trends continue, CO2 concentrations will top five hundreds parts per million, roughly double the levels they were in the preindustrial days, by 2050” (pg 113). The gasses help break the ozone layer and lead to the Earth warming up. This is resulting in some dangerous effects to our world’s oceans which in turn will raise sea levels and destroy islands and coastal towns. Furthermore, all of the extra CO2 is making the oceans acidic. The pH levels of the sea are rising and if we continue to burn fossil fuels “ the oceans will be 150 percent more acidic than they were at the start of the industrial revolution” (pg 114). After scuba diving, Hall-Spencer and Buis show Kolbert the animals they saved from the carbon dioxide sea vents, which include a starfish with no leg. Ocean acidification will lead to marine life quickly dying off. The problem isn't that we are adding carbon dioxide to the environment but that we are doing so rapidly. We must learn how to find better ways of obtaining energy. Energy is something that needs to come from somewhere and depending on where it comes from it can harm the environment. The earth is a interconnected system and so if one area is harmed then it affects everything. The acidification of the oceans hurt the fish and marine wildlife while also harming us. The fishes are dying due to the pH levels in the water which in turn lowers our food supply. We need to help solve this issue before it's too late, " we humans out a lot of energy into making sure that the pH levels of our blood is constant (...) But some of these lower organisms, they don't have the physiology to do that. They've just got to tolerate what's happening outside, and so they get pushed beyond their limits"( pg 116). If we don't help solve this issue then who will?