Oceaanverzuring: nieuwe hype?

Friedrich-Karl Ewert geeft onheilsprofeet Rahmstorf lik op stuk.

Reeds verschillende malen heb ik aandacht geschonken aan de Duitse klimatoloog Stefan Rahmstorf. Eerder schreef ik over hem:

Naast Hans Joachim Schellnhuber behoort Stefan Rahmstorf tot de topklimaatalarmisten in Duitsland. Zij zijn beiden verbonden aan het PIK ('Potsdam Institut für Klimafolgenforschung') dat op kosten van de Duitse belastingbetaler de klimaathysterie in dat land in stand houdt – althans verwoede pogingen daartoe doet. Het PIK is enigszins te vergelijken met ons Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL). Dat kan er ook soms wat van, maar is toch een toonbeeld van wetenschappelijkheid en nuance vergeleken met het PIK.

Nu de opwarmingspauze maar blijft voortduren, is het PIK op zoek naar nieuwe thema's waarmee de klimaathysterie kan worden aangewakkerd. Zo heeft Rahmstorf in een recente hoorzitting van de commissie voor milieu, energie en klimaat van het parlement van Nedersaksen gewaarschuwd voor de gevaren van het smelten van het Noordpoolijs en de verzuring van de oceanen. Vroeger gingen zijn onheilsprofetieën er in Duitsland in als koek. Thans krijgt hij meteen lik op stuk.

Onder de titel, 'German Prof Friedrich-Karl Ewert Dismisses Visions Of Future Ocean Acidification ”Exaggerated Claims”', schrijft Pierre Gosselin op zijn blog.

The ocean-acid-heads are tripping out once again, trying to scare the public with their hallucinatory visions of future marine catastrophes. In a hearing by the Lower Saxony Environment Committee on June 16, 2014, Professor Stefan Rahmstorf (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) once again announced panic warnings of melting ice in the Arctic and ocean-acidification. EIKE reports here.

Ewert F.K.

As is usual in so-called 'climate science’, Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf is very selective with the facts: When they contradict the Zeitgeist of man-made climate change, they get ignored. This way of conducting science is not new –– there have always been scientists who have served authority – and their own interests. Karl Popper recognized that science becomes ideology as soon as one stops to ask questions and only allows repetition instead. Plenty of examples are known.

German writer Goethe once said (18 Dec 1828): ‘One must always repeat what is true because fallacy is also constantly preached around us, and not from just one person, but by the masses in newspapers and encyclopedias, at schools and universities.’ At his presentation before the Committee for Environment, Energy and Climate at the state parliament of Lower Saxony on 16 June 2014, Prof. Rahmstorf once again practiced pseudoscience, this time it concerned Arctic sea ice extent and the ocean acidification.

Alleged shrinking of Arctic sea ice

The shrinking of Arctic sea ice up to the year 2012 was used by Rahmstorf as proof of the ongoing CO2-induced global warming. However the fact that sea ice grew 40% from August 2012 to August 2013 never got mentioned. The ice comes and goes because periodic, episodic fluctuations in temperature development also take place in the Arctic.

Ocean acidification
Prof. Rahmstorf informed that ‘our anthropogenic CO2 was causing an acidification of the ocean, which has increased 30%, and as a result the coral reefs are in danger.’

Are we really seeing the alleged acidity? No. This is because with a pH = 8.1 they are still very much alkaline. Foremost ocean researcher and climate agitator Rahmstorf apparently does not know about the chemistry of the ocean, let alone the coral reefs. Yet he sees himself qualified to judge this.

It is a fact that atmospheric CO2 concentration over the course of the earth’s history was far greater than it is today. And if that is the case, then so were the oceans. It is a fact that the pH value of the oceans has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1. This is nothing more then a small drop in alkalinity because water does not become acidic until the pH drops under 7.0. Whether the current pH change from 8.2 to 8.1 is new and unique, or can also be greater and how it was in former times, is unknown because no long-term measurements are available. ...

CO2 is the building block of coral reefs. Their growth begins with algae that live in the corals, and they need CO2 in order to live and grow, and thus provide for the growth of calcium carbonate skeletons that eventually lead to the formation of the reefs. In addition to the large coral reefs of today’s tropical seas, there are countless relics made of large masses of calcium carbonate, also in our Central German mountains we are able to see them – e.g. in the Harz, Sauerland and Eifel regions. They were all once coral reefs in the ocean. Their CO2 content was considerably higher than today – and that was good because it produced huge quantities of limestone.

Therefore: without the building block of CO2 there would be no limestone and so no coral reefs! Admittedly the CO2 concentrations were greater than today. But it is unknown whether the pH value was maybe lower or higher than it is in our geological time and whether and how it changed.

And last but not least: What is the impact of the huge quantities of CO2 that are constantly pouring out of vents and volcanoes at the seabed? We neither know their quantities nor their temporal or spatial changes. One thing is certain: They are also involved in the formation of calcium carbonate and coral reefs.

Rahmstorf’s acidification theory leads us to ask one thing: What does this kind of climate and ocean research have to do with natural sciences?

Aldus Friedrich–Karl Ewert.

Lees verder hier.

Voor mijn eerdere DDS– bijdragen zie hier.