Dr Malte Meinshausen report on the contribution of the Wandoan Coal Mine to climate change and ocean acidification

INTRODUCTION

1. I have been asked by the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) on behalf of Friends of the Earth – Brisbane Co-Op Ltd to provide an expert report on the resilience of the climate to emissions of greenhouse gases from the proposed Wandoan Coal Mine in Queensland, Australia. Other experts, including Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg are addressing related issues in separate reports, including ocean acidification. The reports are to assist the Land Court of Queensland in an objections hearing regarding the proposed mine.

Scientist creates new hypothesis on ocean acidification

A researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, an organized research unit in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology has come up with a new explanation for the effects of ocean acidification on coral reefs.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been rising due to the burning of fossil fuels. Increased absorption of this carbon by the ocean is lowering the seawater pH (the scale which measures how acidic or basic a substance is) and aragonite saturation state in a process known as ocean acidification. Aragonite is the mineral form of calcium carbonate that is laid down by corals to build their hard skeleton. Researchers wanted to know how the declining saturation state of this important mineral would impact living coral populations.