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Dive Deeper and Take Action: Ocean Acidification Activity
What is pH?
pH is a scale to measure how acidic or basic a substance is. It is measured on a scale from 0 to 14. Pure water is neutral or “7” on the pH scale. Substances with a pH less than 7 are considered acidic; those with a pH greater than 7 are considered basic.
Ocean animals are adapted to live in sea water with a pH of 8 (slightly basic). If the acidity changes, this can impact ocean animals, especially those with shells. This is known as ocean acidification.
What is Ocean Acidification?
Ocean acidification is caused by excessive CO2 being absorbed by the ocean, which changes its chemistry. This can have major impacts on ocean animals, the ocean food web, and even humans who rely on the ocean for food.
The good news: we can reduce this threat by reducing the CO2 we create.
CO2 is created by burning fossil fuels. We each have a “carbon footprint” - the total amount of CO2 that is generated by our actions. We can each work to reduce this footprint through our actions.
Watch one of the following videos to learn more about ocean acidification:
What Is Ocean Acidification? | A Cartoon Crash Course
Resources to learn about personal carbon footprints and how to reduce them:
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