rod mclaughlin


You can't make it up XIII - global warming "may" shrink fish by "up to" 24 percent (01 oct 12)

Note the precision - "up to 24%"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19758440

Note also the hedging - "may" shrink fish

This isn't science

Do people still take this crap seriously?

The lack of precision is partly a result of the realization that climate change has complex effects. Some of them may shrink fish, others may cause them to get bigger.

Have you heard about climate change causing "acidification of the oceans"? Sounds nasty, doesn't it? Until you find that the oceans are alkaline (pH 8 to pH 8.3). This caustic alkalinity has been one of the major problems evolution has had to solve. Reducing that alkalinity will make life easier, not harder. Unless it happened quickly, so that evolution had no chance to keep pace.

The actual relationships between alkalinity, basicity and acidification are quite complex, and alkalinity and basicity are not the same. My point is that the phrase "acidification" is used by people who know better to scare the ignorant.

 



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