Wynn's Inheritance

Earlier this morning in SMS402 (Oceans and Climate Change) I watched A Sea Change, which I have to say is one of the better climate change documentaries I've seen.  The film follows Sven Huseby on his self-driven quest to gain knowledge on ocean acidification, that is, the acidic pH of our Earth's oceans.  The oceans were once thought to miraculously absorb the billions of metric tons of CO2 that humans expel into the atmosphere.  Scientist, not too long ago, were even asking themselves "how can we enhance this mechanism?"
We now know better, this great absorption of CO2 has come at a great cost.  The pH of the oceans is slowly falling.

Pteropods - these beautiful creatures, about the size of a lentil, exist near the bottom of the food chain and form the fundamental base for much of the oceans ecosystem.  They have been described as the angels of the ocean.  What would happen if their existence were compromised?  Well it is!  Pteropods have a thin shell that is delicate to changes in ocean chemistry.  Consider what we know about cola and teeth.  Cola has a pH of 2.5, compare that to the pH of pure water, which is 7.
The following images show a healthy tooth and then one that has soaked in a cup of cola for 24 hrs:

That was only 1 day later!  Imagine what the affects more exposure would have.  This is 1 month later:

It gets worse.  This tooth is relatively HUGE compared to the fragile shell of a Pteropods.  Current projections allow a decade or two before highly acidic oceans could develop.  Change needs to happen now!

Here is the real stinker, it would cost only 2% of GDP to combat global climate change.  So that bottle of pop would cost $1.02 instead of $1.00.  2% is less than half of the GDP spent on wars in the middle east.  This 2% would however take ENORMOUS discipline world over to achieve.  How then can we achieve what needs to happen?  Well we will need to show the politicians that this is something the world wants - that is something every one of us is capable of doing :)

Here is another flabbergaster - it would cost only $420 billion to construct and implement a solar infrastructure that could power the entire USA.  Remind me again why we have spent $950 billion fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan???????  I feel sick.
I don't want history to remember our generation as one of greed and materialism.  A generation that took from the world only to please our want of huge houses, SUVs, and giant televisions.  And for what?  What is a couple hundred years of this lifestyle worth?  Certainly not the comprimised planet we leave behind for our children.
Wynn will no doubt learn about and learn to deal with these issues.  I'd like to instill in her the ability to ask hard questions, discover as much as she can, and always think critically.  These are qualities that I believe can allow us as humans to, as someone once said, live long and prosper.