Ocean Acidification - Essay Example

"Ocean Acidification" is a wonderful example of a paper on medical ethics. The discussion aims to highlight Ocean Acidification in line with the DPSEEA Model identifying the relationship between environments and human health with reference to the number of factors associated with them. Ocean Acidification is defined as a process where a decrease in the pH of the earth’s oceans is caused by the emission of carbon dioxide. The emission of carbon dioxide goes into oceans that often act evil to global climate change raising concerns. When Al Gore stated the Ocean Acidification in “An Inconvenient Truth”, many argued about the exaggeration of oceans raising alarms for the eco-system and thus for environments. However, the change in the oceans may result in severe complexities in the food chain and thus creating dangers for the food chain and human lives (Jacobson, 2005).  The discussion presents the driving force of Ocean Acidification, pressure, state, harmful health exposures, and how to manage Ocean Acidification.

Driving Force- the major driving force for Ocean Acidification can be considered as the industrial revolution where the emergence of industries across the world raised the rate of carbon dioxide emissions and thus increasing the amount of Co2 that is more than what oceans can absorb. At the same time, the production of shells and plates out of calcium carbonate has been the main culprit behind the reduction of the pH of the earth’s oceans. These driving forces have severely affected the food chain and continue to do the same (Smith, R., et al (1992).  

Pressure- Pressures are generally generated by wide arrays of economic activities. It can be said that every industrial activity results in carbon emission leading to a rise in the pressure that has to be bear by the environment. More or less, these pressures have been considered to be controlled by reducing the level of carbon emission and designing an effective framework but with rising in economic activities; the pressure has risen to a great extent and can only be controlled through equal global initiatives and actions (Smith, R., et al (1992).  

State- the state of the environment either gets affected or modified in different situations. In this situation, it can be said that the present state of the global environment is in dire straits with sea species being exposed to dangers of affecting the food chain. Species like fishes, sea mammals, and birds along with corals form an effective part of the food chain and any sort of imbalance is likely to affect the state of the environment in an adverse manner (Tyrrell, (2008).  It is important to control these changes till they start affecting the full food chain and thus affecting a number of species.

Harmful Health Exposures- It needs to be understood that Ocean Acidification carries serious health issues to marine species especially corals and other marine species that also live with them and a rise in the acidic level may harm these species and thus disturbing the balance of the food chain. This can also result in health issues for human beings as Ocean Acidification along with global climate change can affect the lifestyle and health of many and thus raising long-term concerns (Tyrrell, 2008).

Managing Ocean Acidification- Ocean Acidification is directly associated with the emission of carbon dioxide that needs to be controlled requiring global initiatives. At the same time, any step that would lead to the effective management of oceans should be deployed to save oceans from getting acidic. However, the real solution lies in controlling and managing economic activities by keeping a tab on carbon emission to sort out the issue of Ocean Acidification and Global Climate Change (Smith, R., et al (1992).  

Conclusion

The discussion clearly states that Ocean Acidification is a result of human activity resulting in the acidification of oceans and thus creating changes in food chain imbalances. It can only be managed and controlled by taking global initiatives in the field of carbon emission by using stringent policies and regulations.

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