Does Australia have it right????

[shinek]

This is getting fun, but for anyone with such obviously firmly held views of the world to say that somebody else is not being open minded, I find frankly amusing. I've always believed that to argue religion or politics is a pointless exercise as anyone who has strong enough views on those subjects that they are willing to argue, will not be swayed to another view point.

As for acidification, I don't claim to be the great scientist of the bunch, although I do have a degree in Marine Biology but that was 25+ years ago and so I wouldn't dream of claiming that good a memory. 25 years in technology sales has wiped most of the scientific brain cells out.

However, on a sub-oceanic scale, I have an aquarium at home and was recently reading an article about growing plants and invertebrates and the problems that can arise. One comment made was that by introducing CO2 into the tank, you will get an increase in plant growth, we all know those plants love that CO2. However, the word of caution was with regards to such things as snails. While snails do require the appropriate minerals in order to grow their shells, too much CO2 will cause acidification of the water and will actually dissolve the shells. This was used as a possible axplanation as to why someone could have a healthy plant growth in their aquarium but their snails just kept dying off despite plenty of algae for them to eat. While I don't know all the science behind it (numbers, percentages etc.)and don't have the article in front of me to reference, it did make sense at the time I read it and so, keeping an open mind, it makes sense that this is possible on the larger, oceanic level.

OK, back to you guys, I'm enjoying the discussion!

PS: Just found this, thought it might make interesting reading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification