Maritime Awards Society of Canada

Climate change is affecting the biogeochemistry of the ocean. The ocean serves as a sink for large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but this ecosystem service comes at a price: the dissolution of carbon dioxide acidifies seawater, which affects the ability of marine organisms to form calcareous shells and skeletons. Efforts to manage both the causes and effects of acidification are beginning. For example, the Center for Biological Diversity and Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a settlement on using the Clean Water Act to address ocean acidification. This is one of the tools that may help ocean and coastal managers respond to the potentially devastating impacts of climate change on the marine environment.

Panelists representing the scientific, nongovernmental, federal, and regulated communities will address the litigation, legislation, and research being undertaken and developed to address these changing ocean conditions:

Panelists:

Dr. Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science, Smithsonian Institution
William Snape, Senior Counsel, Center for Biological Diversity
Christine Ruf, Senior Policy Analyst, Watersheds Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency

Film Screening

A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish

Climate Change and Oceans

7pm, Friday, December 4th, 2009

Burke Theatre, St. Mary’s University
Halifax, Nova Scotia

We know that rising greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are affecting the climate, but how are they affecting the oceans that cover 70% of the Earth and play an essential role in regulating our oxygen levels and sustaining us?

A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish explores this question. The answer makes immediate action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions imperative. The film follows Sven Huseby, a retired history teacher, as he tries to understand what ocean acidification means. Speaking with oceanographers, marine biologists, climatologists, and artists, Sven discovers that global warming is only half the story of the environmental catastrophe that awaits us. Excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans, changing sea water chemistry. The more acidic water makes it difficult for tiny creatures at the bottom of the food web to form their shells. The effects could work their way up to the fish 1 billion people depend upon for their source of protein.
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