Welcome to today’s edition of Boiling Point. I’m Ian James, a reporter on The Times climate and environment team, filling in for my colleague Sammy Roth.
As the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities continue to increase the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ocean is absorbing a large portion of the CO2, which is making seawater more acidic.
The changing water chemistry in the ocean has far-reaching effects for plankton, shellfish and the entire marine food web.
And here’s one important fact about ocean acidification: It’s not happening at the same rate everywhere.
The California coast is one of the regions of the world where ocean acidification is occurring the fastest. And researchers have found that local sources of pollution are part of the problem.
In particular, effluent discharged from coastal sewage treatment plants, which has high nitrogen levels from human waste, has been shown to significantly contribute to ocean acidification off the Southern California coast. These nitrogen-filled discharges also periodically contribute to algae blooms, leading to hypoxia, or oxygen-deprived water that is inhospitable for marine life.
Environmental advocates are concerned that these discharges are taking a severe toll on the ecosystem, and are urging state leaders to take steps to improve wastewater treatment to clean up the pollution.
A man walks on the San Gabriel River jetty in Long Beach in 2019.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials, leaders of 29 organizations called on the state to “act immediately and decisively to protect our ocean from the alarming occurrence of ocean acidification off the California coast.”
“Ocean acidification is gradually shifting the California coastline toward a more acidic, corrosive state, while hypoxia — or low dissolved oxygen levels — is making the ocean less habitable for organisms ranging from sea snails to crabs to…