Back From the Front Our World

The BBC's Environment Analyst, Roger Harrabin, reports for Our World now

on the dangers facing some of the planet's most spectacular underwater

environments. These bubbles are poisoning the sea.

Their carbon dioxide and as the gas dissolves in water, it makes

carbonic acid `` they are carbon dioxide. This unique site off the

tip of Papua New Guinea is nature's morning. These bubbles seat out

volcanic vents and make the water here more naturally acidic. This

gives scientists a clue as to what the world's oceans will look like as

the emissions of man`made CO2 gets dissolved into seawater everywhere.

There is no denial that seawater chemistry is changing and there is

no way of stopping the atmospheric pollution going into the seawater.

It has long been known carbon dioxide emissions are changing the

climate. We are just discovering how much it is also acidifying the

ocean. I have come to the southern hemisphere to see the size of the

challenge that both issues present. To governments and scientists alike.

Australia is in the frontline of ocean acidification and of change.

The government fears that cutting the emissions of CO2 that are

driving both of them because of fears for jobs in the economy. That

doesn't mean that it isn't finding some of the world's fine scientific

research. `` funding. The Australian economy depends on exports of the

dirtiest fuel, Cole. It is thought to be worth more than $50 billion

per year `` coal. Politicians realise that CO2 from fuels like

coal is blamed for harming their country's climate and its oceans.

Without global agreement to cut carbon dioxide, Australia, like many

nations, is disinclined to leave its Colliver ground. `` coal in the

ground. We have come 3000 kilometres north to Papa New Guinea. Our

destination is a volcanic site which offers vital clues about the impact

of increasing atmospheric CO2. I have been invited to join the

expedition. It is led by Katarina FRU Brosius, a German born ecologist

and she is determined to find out which creatures will be harmed by

the changes to come. Seawater is already 30% less alkaline since we

started burning fossil fuels in the Industrial Revolution. It is going

to get much worse. The impact of acidifying oceans will be felt

around the world. Especially in countries like Papa New Guinea,

which depend on coral reefs for tourism and fishing. Papa New Guinea

is in the middle of a mining boom. With all the pollution that that

entails. People want a Western standard of living. There is a

dawning awareness of the fragility of the environment. A day's sailing

east Papa Guinea, we reach the remote island of Normandy. The

island's volcano sits right on what is known as the Pacific Ring of

Fire. The boat will be moored at this unique spot for a month. As

scientists study the effects of the marine life of the CO2 bubbling from

the events below. First, the scientists need permission from the

villagers to carry out the research. They owned the reef under customary

law. Hello. How are you? Good to see you. How are you? Do you remember

Julie? The bubbles here, it is carbon dioxide. It is clean, but it

is a gas in the air. Especially if Western countries burn so much fuel

and coal, there is more of this gas in the air, and that goes into the

ocean. Katarina is seeking lessons from

this extraordinary underwater environment. These old boulder

corals are tough enough to cope with the levels of acidity here. A`level

that is expected worldwide by the end of the century.

The team 's experiments are comparing this site with an

unpolluted reef a few hundred yards away. Then mash tents captured soon

clanked in `` plankton, to see how they will fare in the wall acidified

water. `` more acidified. This site is absolutely unique in it is the

only place where we can analyse the effects of acidification on whole

ecosystems `` the only place in the world where we can analyse the

effects. We can simulate the effects of ocean acidification. 's events

produced extreme conditions. As the scientists move further away, they

find the Essar point where acidification reaches the level

expected elsewhere `` exact point. Further still, here is part of the

reef that is unaffected by CO2. It is a festival of colour with the

convoluted architecture that gives shelter to juvenile fish. Many of

these spectacular corals cannot survive under acidified water. We

are losing a lot of biodiversity. The reefs are suffering under high

CO2 because they are built out of calcium carbonate, which is highly

sensitive to more acidic waters. Once we lose the structure in the

Coral Reef, we lose its biodiversity. Politicians have known

for 20 years that they ought to cut CO2 to why do you think knowledge

about ocean acidification would make them think differently? There is no

denial that the seawater chemistry is changing. We are measuring it

from a year`to`year basis. What is in the air is in equilibrium with

the ocean. There is no way stopping the atmospheric pollution from going

into the sea. People pollute the environment in so many ways. Here in

Papa New Guinea, the UN is trying to raise awareness to keep local water

supplies clean. Campaigners in tribal dress are helping to sell the

message. Your water is your life! Even the emissions from the campaign

truck contribute in a timely way to the global CO2 pollution that is

harming the oceans. At the research site, another experiment is under

way. They are retrieving boxes they fixed to the seabed two years ago.

The boxes attract creatures seeking a home. By comparing the species at

the polluted and unpolluted sites, they can gauge how increasing CO2

will affect the entire oceans in the future. The experimental boxes come

on shore for analysis. One of the scientific team members wants to

establish how many species have taken up residence. We need to work

very quickly, because a lot of the creatures are releasing toxins as we

speak and those toxins are killing the creatures living in the sampling

device and we are losing their DNA. Sorting the creatures by size. This

crate helps us keep the organisms inside. The boxes are part of a

worldwide network of counting the variety of species in the sea. We

put a very fine mesh around the samplers, so that no creatures

escape. It is only by studying the creatures together, in their natural

environment, that researchers can really understand the effects of

increasing CO2 on the whole ecosystem. There are too many things

we don't control in vibratory settings and we can have their

diversity we have in here. The contents of this book suggest the

levels of biodiversity we might expect on reefs worldwide by the end

of the century. I am extremely surprised by how poor destruction

is. I am used to seeing a lot of groups, a lot of different crabs and

molluscs, but here I only see a few. A day later, the team examined

material from the unpredicted site. The difference is startling. Today,

this trade is full of organisms. Lots of different species. `` tray.

It is very diverse. All of these tiny species, they are the building

blocks of the diversity of the reef. They are the base of the food

chain. Some of the most humble species play a crucial role by

glueing the reef together. They are in abundance here at the unpolluted

site. This is covered in a lot of different organisms. We have

sponges, , it is very colourful. It provides the matrix, the building

blocks for other organisms to come and hide and live, basically.

To work is not finished, but it is a warning about how CO2 will affect

marine life, a warning that will be heard by scientists worldwide, and

welcomed by the people in the front line.

Australia, like other nations, is slowly waking up to ocean

acidification. I have tracked the acid oceans story for nearly a

decade now, but it is still largely unknown to the public. As with

climate change, some of the science of acidification is very firm, but

in other areas there is uncertainty. Could the risks of ocean

acidification have been exaggerated? That is a question that

has brought me here, to Townsville on the north`east coast of

Australia. It is a major centre for Reef research. It looks like with

the most difficult part is catching a fish. In one trial here, at James

Cook University, a research is chasing a fish to see if acidifying

the sea effects its athletic ability. It is definitely tired.

This government funded university produced a controversial report last

year, which was seized on by climate change sceptics. Professor Terry

O'Neill revealed that some corals could still survive under more

acidic conditions. Sceptics said it proved that fears for the Reef were

overblown. Was this true? There is nothing in the study that has said

that climate change and boson, ocean acidification is a huge problem for

coral reefs, so my science was misrepresented in that sense. The

study we did was to look at the mix of corals, and the result we found

was surprising to us. It shows that it is very flexible, in terms of

which species are abundant all rare at any particular location. Species

compensate for each other, so if one becomes more abundant, another

becomes less so, and the overall abundance of all the species

combined is about the same everywhere. So you have the same

amount of total cover of coral in the Coral Reef, why should we worry?

There is good news in that there is winners as well as loses, but the

most susceptible corals to global warming and ocean acidification are

branching corals and table corals. They are the ones that make all the

nooks and crannies that provide the habitat for fish and other

creatures. So that means less fish for a hungry population? That is a

likely scenario, and also because of the direct impact on the physiology

of the fish themselves. It seems that more than a third of coral

species May not survive the acidification. This new facility in

Townsville is taking research to a higher level. It is analysing what

will happen in future, when the ocean becomes more acidic, and

warmer at the same time. This is a brand`new building to try to address

the issue of ocean acidification. We are meeting up again with the

scientist who is analysing results from the field. We still know very

little of what ocean acidification actually does to different

lifestages, and we can use the organisms we are keeping here, put

them under controlled conditions, and then test what to richer and

ocean acidification does to these organisms. What we can do is

manipulate things like nutrients, sedimentation, the carbon dioxide in

the water and the temperature, to try to find it in these controlled

facilities. It is already clear that there is a wide variation in the way

this little spec is actually a baby born. It is very sensitive to ocean

acidification. It can't grow and will die in areas of high

acidification. Scientists are finding more and more that a lot of

species and ecosystems are likely to be highly affected by a ocean

acidification. They find it very difficult to predict what is going

to happen. Carbon dioxide levels are increasing very rapidly. We already

have 30% more acidic water than before the industrial revolution.

The predicted changes are that it will be 150% more acidic by 2050,

that is not very far away. It is clear that many species won't

survive increased acidity. Others will thrive. We have both corals and

sponges ranging from tiny little babies right through to adults.

Nicole Webster is studying the effects of CO2 and capture on

sponges. Our hypothesis is that as corals declined under climate

change, sponges may actually do better. This tiny animal here is a

one`year`old sponge. This sponge is jampacked with tiny microscopic

bacteria that actually contribute to the nutrition of the animal. What we

are proposing is that these bacteria may photosynthesise more under high

CO2, enabling the sponges to grow faster than Jupiter in a high CO2

world. That sounds like it could be a good thing for it really depends.

They essentially filter the Reef, and there is contaminants or

pollution in the water, they can be very sensitive to that because they

are filtering those compounds out of the water. They can also

potentially, there is a huge biomass of sponges, create feeding shadows,

which are areas where they have removed all the nutrients out of the

water, and they wouldn't provide sufficient nutrition for other

animals that live on the Reef. Basically, too many sponges could

threaten the Reef. So, it is a gamble we are taking. It is

impossible to gauge exactly what will happen as we change the

chemistry of the world's biggest ecosystem of the oceans. The world

is still struggling to reach agreement on cutting carbon dioxide

emissions. Australia's previous Labour government supported a deal,

and introduced a carbon tax. But the new government was elected with a

mandate to cut those, and is cutting funds for climate science. CO2 is a

big issue, and it is of great concern of all the governments in

one way or another. But ocean acidification, being so slow, does

not appear. What is much more important to our government, this

particular government, is protecting coal, and pushing coal is the main

form of energy. They are not interested really in alternative

energy. Ian is an historian, specialising in the environment. He

is an outspoken critic of the government. The dependence of coal

going out to China is the core economic policy of the government at

the moment. Do you see anything changing this? I think the thing

that would change it would be catastrophes on one site, more

extreme bushfires, cyclones and so on. The other would be the fact that

very many people in the rural sector are now becoming concerned about

coal fracking and the influence of that kind of mining, particularly on

groundwater. So, they are starting to become resistant to the idea of

driving these sorts of industrial businesses. We contacted the

Australian government, but they haven't offered a comment. The new

PM, Tony Abbott, has been quoted as saying, we don't know how much

humans have caused climate change. Back at the research site in Papua,

there is a very different perspective on what science can tell

us. What I know is a scientist is, what we are recording here is pure

chemistry and physics. The carbon dioxide in the air is going into the

ocean and making it more acidic, because it is one chemical of carbon

dioxide, one of water. It forms carbonic acid.

I think we have an ethical responsibility to look after the

biodiversity on earth. We have the responsibility to allow our

grandchildren to see coral reefs as they are today, in their whole

colour and beauty and diversity. And think it is a matter of us taking

stock of what we're really doing to world, and realising it is

irreversible. We have been flagging up the

potential for heavy downpours were a few days now, and the detail will be

quite difficult through the weekend