{"id":386614,"date":"2025-07-03T17:10:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386614"},"modified":"2025-07-03T17:10:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:10:37","slug":"stop-lying-the-guardian-the-worlds-oceans-arent-becoming-dangerously-acidic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=386614","title":{"rendered":"Stop Lying, The Guardian, the World\u2019s Oceans Aren\u2019t Becoming Dangerously Acidic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By H. Sterling Burnett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.K.\u2019s The Guardian<\/em> ran an article claiming that the world\u2019s oceans have surpassed a critical tipping point in acidity threatening sea life. This is false. The pH content of the world\u2019s oceans varies by time and place throughout the day, rising and falling modestly, but the average pH content remains far from acidic and there is no evidence crustaceans or other types of shellfish are being threatened by the sea water becoming acidic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Bachelor, the writer of The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s article, \u201c\u2018Ticking timebomb\u2019: sea acidity has reached critical levels, threatening entire ecosystems \u2013 study<\/a>,\u201d says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world\u2019s oceans are in worse health than realized, scientists have said today, as they warn that a key measurement shows we are \u201crunning out of time\u201d to protect marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ocean acidification, often called the \u201cevil twin\u201d of the climate crisis, is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed by the ocean, where it reacts with water molecules leading to a fall in the pH level of the seawater. It damages coral reefs and other ocean habitats and, in extreme cases, can dissolve the shells of marine creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bachelor\u2019s story is based upon a study which claims that ocean acidity has breached a \u201cplanetary boundary,\u201d the seventh of nine such milestones or boundaries to be breached, threatening to cause permanent damage to the planet\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study looked at ice core records and studies of marine life, run through algorithms of complex computer models to assess the past 150 years, concluding the ocean acidification boundary had been breached, with the world facing a \u201cticking timebomb,\u201d of sea life destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This study\u2019s findings are driven by woefully flawed computer models, a limited time horizon and understanding of long-term history, and lack a basis in real world data. As such it and The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s dire warnings based on it, are unjustified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Model outputs are only as good as the assumptions, data, and our understandings of the feedbacks and systems built into them. Even as our knowledge improves, our understanding of the oceans and the interactions of its various currents, systems, inputs, and outputs remain limited, thus the assumptions built into the models are weak and uncertain. As discussed at Climate Realism<\/em>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>, for example, the climate model outputs fail to match reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerning the limited time scale of this paper\u2019s analysis, 150 years is a blip in the history of the Earth and its oceans. Coral reefs and shellfish<\/a> have existed, thrived and evolved over tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years<\/a>, through periods of both more alkaline and more acidic oceans. Based on current data, there is no reason to believe that recent changes in ocean pH threatens a \u201ctimebomb,\u201d or apocalypse for shellfish and other sea life, at least not if one cares about solid evidence as opposed to model outputs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, in fact, no scientifically established \u201cplanetary boundaries,\u201d or \u201ctipping points.\u201d Rather such claims are political in nature, meant to drive political action (and likely increased funding) on behalf of the concerns of select groups of scientists. If the research of a select group of scientists are to be believed, the Earth has already surpassed seven of the nine purported boundaries \u2013 yet, data on extreme weather<\/a> shows no worsening of hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, heat waves, drought, temperature or weather related deaths, or long-term coral or shellfish decline (at least, for the latter, no decline not tied to pollution and overharvesting). As such, one must wonder what dangers surpassing the supposed boundaries pose if exceeding them results in no identifiable harm that can be linked to the breach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to the crux of the study\u2019s and The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s assertions that oceans are becoming dangerously acidic. Climate Realism<\/a> has rebutted previous mainstream media stories claiming human carbon dioxide emissions were causing the oceans to become more acidic on 10 previous occasions. What the evidence shows is ocean pH varies significantly across the globe, with levels in tropical regions being more than twice as high as those in polar and that marine life has evolutionarily adapted to changes in pH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that sea water has a normal pH of 8.1 and nowhere across the ocean is anywhere close to 7.0 or below. \u201cAlthough climate models<\/em> suggest the oceans\u2019 surface pH may have dropped from pH 8.2 to 8.1 since 1750, that change was never actually measured, rather the pH drop is merely a modeled conjecture,\u201d as Climate at a Glance: Ocean Acidification<\/a> explains. The EPA provides a helpful graphic by way of comparison. (see the graphic, below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Comparison of the pH of common substances. Data source: U.S. Environmental Protection AgencFigure 1. Comparison of the pH of common substances. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, \u201cMeasuring Acid Rain,\u201d epa.gov, last accessed August 12, 2021, https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/acidrain\/what-acid-rainy<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To conclude, acidic oceans make for a good scare story, raising the specter of mountains of dead and disintegrating sea life and perhaps bathers and surfers dissolving before horrified beachgoers\u2019 eyes, but neither imaginative image has any relation to reality. We don\u2019t know for sure whether ocean pH has declined over time during the recent period of climate change, but we do know that more than halfway to a doubling of atmospheric CO2<\/sub>\u00a0concentrations above pre-industrial levels, average ocean pH levels are well above the neutral 7 mark, and if they\u2019ve declined at all, it has been by a barely measurable amount. As a result, contra\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s headline, there is no identifiable \u201cticking timebomb\u201d threatening ocean ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.K.\u2019s The Guardian ran an article claiming that the world\u2019s oceans have surpassed a critical tipping point in acidity threatening sea life. This is false. The pH content of the world\u2019s oceans varies by time and place throughout the day, rising and falling modestly, but the average pH content remains far from acidic and there is no evidence crustaceans or other types of shellfish are being threatened by the sea water becoming acidic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":386621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997,691819102,691824914,691836294,691818262,691823156,691836295],"class_list":["post-386614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carbon-dioxide-co","tag-computer-models","tag-ocean-acidification","tag-ph-content","tag-the-guardian","tag-u-s-environmental-protection-agency","tag-worlds-oceans","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0coral-reef-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1312&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1CzI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":384983,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384983","url_meta":{"origin":386614,"position":0},"title":"pHony Alarmism","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/25\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"For a while now scientists have been raising the alarm about the effect of increasing atmospheric CO2 on the pH of the ocean. pH is a measure of whether something is acidic (pH below 7), alkaline, also called basic (pH above 7) or neutral (pH of 7). 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The ocean is strongly buffered and remains highly supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate (calcite\/aragonite) even at much higher CO\u2082\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Buffering capacity\"","block_context":{"text":"Buffering capacity","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=buffering-capacity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-Acidification-of-Water-by-CO2.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-Acidification-of-Water-by-CO2.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-Acidification-of-Water-by-CO2.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-Acidification-of-Water-by-CO2.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-Acidification-of-Water-by-CO2.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386614"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386623,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386614\/revisions\/386623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/386621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}