Cantwell and Inslee hold local hearings on ocean acidity

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004441731_apwaacidseawater2ndldwritethru.html

SEATTLE —
Puget Sound faces an uncertain future due to the increasing acidity of seawater, a panel of marine scientists said Tuesday. The changes are coming more rapidly than expected, and could disrupt food chains and threaten Washington's shellfish industry...

The acidified water does not pose a threat to humans, but it could dissolve the shells of clams, oysters and other shellfish.One of the article's authors, Christopher Sabine, told Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., - who convened Tuesday's hearing - and Rep. Jay Inslee, also D-Wash., about watching small marine snails placed in water of similar acidity to that recorded last summer off the northern California coast."We actually saw the shells dissolving off these living organisms. They were dissolving off the terapods as they were swimming around," Sabine said. Such creatures comprise as much as 40 percent of the Pacific king salmon's diet....

"As long as CO2 continues to increase in the atmosphere, the oceans will continue to absorb that," Sabine said. "What we're seeing is only going to get worse. We won't see a total collapse in food chains, but we will see substitutions," Klinger said. "We may end up with food chains or food webs that are highly undesirable and not productive for the means that we use them today."...

Congress has taken small steps toward reducing carbon production, Inslee said. But a carbon cap-and-trade system - which allows companies or other groups to emit a certain amount of carbon and trade any excess allowance with other carbon producers - is Inslee's goal."At least by next fall I believe we'll have a cap and trade system in place," he said....

Cantwell's hearing was not part of any upcoming legislation, but rather designed to raise awareness of the issue in the Senate, said Ciaran Clayton, a Cantwell spokeswoman....

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I have no illusions about the effectiveness of this, but it has to begin somewhere. Cantwell and Inslee need encouragement. Give 'em some love, or at least an attaboy.

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1. kick for the a.m. crowd

n/t