By Dennis M. Mitchell, QEP, CPA (Left) and Dr. David R. Legates (Right)

Most people assume that articles printed in newspapers have been sufficiently fact checked before publication. Reports of a fire, a robbery, a sporting event, election results, market analyses, or a public meeting, for example, are expected to present the facts accurately. However, much of today’s newspaper content comes from wire services such as the Associated Press (AP) where the local paper tacitly assumes the AP has fact checked the story. As the AP has become a political organization that is disguised as a news service, the reported facts may be distorted to suit the story AP wants to convey.

Thus, some of what comes from the AP resembles what you might find in a paid advertising spot – where the truth is often bent to sell a product. Such is the case regarding the recent AP article, “Osteoporosis of the Sea”, that was reproduced by many local papers around the world. While the article serves only as a political scare tactic regarding carbon dioxide, the science in that article resembles more alchemy than chemistry. Even those with only a background in high school chemistry know acidification of the ocean from ‘excess CO2’ has no scientific basis, but rather, is a marvelous example of political opportunity by deception.

The AP article touted Jane Lubchenco’s (NOAA administrator since 2009) visit to save the Great Barrier Reef and her railing against CO2, the evil pollutant. Jane, who has had some overtly curious musing about ocean chemistry where she repeatedly confuses calcium and magnesium, keeps spouting the acidification nonsense. She fawns over the international media who provides free advertising for yet more taxpayer money to be wasted fighting another phantom threat. I guess the powerful Oz of the media still subscribes to the old newspaper adage” if it bleeds, it leads” or perhaps in her case, “if it doesn’t bleed, say it does anyway and then lead with it”. Presumably, Lubchenco and others are smart enough to know the errors in their version of ocean chemistry, but they also know that frightening people is easiest way to get them to buy your agenda.

The likes of Lubchenco who chose to resort to magic rather than fundamental chemistry would have you believe that some of the incredibly tiny amount of carbonic acid, the weak acid produced when CO2 goes into solution, has the stoichiometric capability to change the oceans from alkaline to acidic. Their magic further ignores the buffering capability of the oceans and assumes the oceanic pH will drop to such a level that marine organisms cannot process accretions. While one would fail a course in high school chemistry with such illogical understanding, it apparently makes a pot of money for the chemically challenged Lubchenco and her ilk.

We can suggest a problematic point of reality that exposes the absurdity proposed by these alarmists that a rise of a few ppmv of CO2 is devastating to formation of coral accretions. How is it that for the past several hundred million years , atmospheric CO2 has been many times higher than today’s levels and yet, coral was very productive producing massive amount of material that would be part of the world’s limestone in these modern times? Please, ocean acidification from anthropogenic CO2 is a politically manufactured fantasy and it’s time to let the truth out from under a massive limestone rock. Since calculating changes in pH with buffers is too complicated for Lubchenco, perhaps we should suggest she take a college refresher course. May we suggest that a course in ethics would be the best place to start!

Dennis M. Mitchell, QEP, CPA
Dr. David R. Legates