Ocean Acidification

Alec Apodaca

The NFL draft just happened and many people speculate on it, as it is the NFL draft. Everyone wants their team to get the picks they want. Everyone wants the best players and what’s best for their team. Most men turn into draft analysts and seem to know everything about each player. Each team gets a first round pick and most of the teams higher ups and fan bases are pretty pleased with that pick for the most part. Then you start getting into the second round and later rounds were it seems like no GM can do right. From this point on the word “bust” starts coming out and most people will not watch the rest of the draft but, there is still tons of people waiting for their sons, grandson, brothers, and nephews names to be called. No matter what round they go they are just happy to be picked. Just because you get picked in the first round does not mean you are gonna make it and just because you were not picked does not necessarily mean your not gonna make it. There are sleepers out there, people working as hard as they can everyday to make it to the league and be the best. There will always be underrated players and that applies to every aspect of life. There will always be things underrated and things not talked about but what is scary is that sometimes the most important things are not talked about. Things like our environment and our planet, even more importantly our Ocean. Yes it is 2021 and everyone knows about  global warming and how we need to protect our environment. There are tons of people trying to make change but certainly not even close to enough. We always see posts on Instagram and other social media platforms about these things but not everyone knows how scary it really is. Something most people are not too aware of is Ocean Acidification. This occurs when large unnatural amounts of carbon dioxide are admitted into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide comes from cars, factories, other fossil fuels which all negatively affect sea life. All of the unnatural carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually makes its way into the ocean and meets the water. It reacts and thus creates carbonic acid. From each molecule of carbonic acid two hydrogen ions are released which increases the acidity of the water. Which leads to a chain reaction of dissolving the calcium carbonate of shells and exoskeletons that most sea creatures need. Zooplankton are at the bottom of the food chain in the ocean and are one of the most affected by this. If they all die out then whatever eats them to stay alive will in turn die. This all sounds pretty scary but there are people out there making change. Many car companies are starting to go green and strictly electric. It is also a lot more common to see solar panels on top of houses. From the start of the industrial revolution and global industrialization this has been going on but now times are really changing and if we can keep moving forward we just might get lucky and be able to preserve what we have been destroying for the last few hundred years.