A group of experts warned on Monday that increasing acidity of the world’s oceans and warming water temperatures from CO2 emissions could wipe out coral reefs by the end of this century.At a meeting in London, the scientists said the pace of CO2 emissions would mean a level of 450 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 will be reached by 2050, placing coral reefs on a path to extinction in the following decades.“Coral reef survival is balancing on a knife edge as the combined effects of ocean acidification and ocean warming events threaten to push reefs to the brink of extinction this century,” the scientists said at the meeting organized by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the International Program on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the Royal Society.“At anticipated rates of emission increase, it is expected that 450 ppm CO2 will be reached before 2050.

less than 218 day(s) - Tuesday July,07 2009 @ 01:32 PM
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