Tzipi Kathleen Harston (“Attacks Are Baseless,” Our Readers’ Views, June 11) defends Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s bipartisan bill to address ocean acidification. The bill “would allow federal agencies to use existing funds to conduct prize competitions to increase the ability to research, monitor, and manage ocean acidification and its impacts,” per Herrera Beutler’s press release.
The statement recognized the problem of ocean acidification, but not the cause, and is an example of over-reliance on a hoped-for technological fix. Chemistry is stubbornly resistant to politicians. Carbon dioxide and water form carbonic acid or H2CO3, which is in equilibrium with bicarbonate and hydrogen ions. A change in the concentration of the reactants on either side of the equation affects the subsequent direction of the reaction. Add more CO2 to the atmosphere and naturally you’ll have more hydrogen ions that will act on the calcium carbonate
in the shells of invertebrate marine life.
What needs fixing is the rising CO2 concentration. Pushing the other end of the equation would require mining and dumping entire mountain ranges of limestone into the sea.
