Effects from climate change trending more visible

    A husband and wife who both are scientists have been going for years to tiny Tatoosh Island, off the coast of Washington State, for many years now. Dr. Cathy Pfister and her husband, Timothy Wootton, are both biology professors at the University of Chicago, and first began traveling to the island in the 1980s along with their then-graduate adviser, Robert T. Paine (Solie, New York Times, Oct. 7, 2012, 22), a now-retired zoology professor.
     Drs. Pfister and Wootton have been measuring the pH balance of the Pacific Ocean's waters off the island since 2000 and have been registering a steady decline in the pH since then. The pair of scientists, along with many others, attribute this decline to the increasing deposit of carbon dioxide, C02, in the ocean waters which occurs as CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere by way of the "greenhouse effect." Their pH measurements have been confirmed by many other scientists.
     Pfister and Wootton have linked the increasing CO2 in the ocean waters to a  decrease in the hardness and durability of the exoskeletons of mussels and goose barnacles, and in coralline algae that latch onto rocky shorelines (Solie 22). Simultaneously, the scientists have observed a decrease in the population of the island's bird populations of gulls and murres, which depend on these shell animals for food. They say that the populations of these birds are a mere half of what they were 10 years ago. Pfister and Wootton find this drop in population to be disturbing, and they regard this, along with the increased acidity in the ocean waters due to CO2 absorption and the weakening of shell animals, to be a danger signal for how climate change is altering long- established relationships in the natural environment.
    People, please pay attention to this, and to other communications from the scientific community regarding the effects of climate change. This dedicated wife-husband team of scientists are not necessarily traveling to this water-drenched island, living in a one-room cabin with their children, for their personal enjoyment, although it may be quite invigorating and healthy to breathe in the fresh, ocean air!

The push to carry out hydro-fracturing operations ("fracking") is widespread and growing in our country as well as abroad, and it is worrying. Despite industry's claims that they are using safe procedures and that there are no harmful side effects from drilling deep into subterranean rocky surfaces to extract natural gas and oil, the facts are that there are numerous, very toxic side products that result from the use of toxic chemicals in the extraction process. Because of the depths accessed in hydro-fracturing, much of these toxic chemicals are left behind in the depths and the opportunity for these chemicals to migrate into underground water supplies is considerable. In fact, this has already happened to water supplies of residents in various states, and just recently the EPA has made a determination of "likely" that hydro-fracturing related contamination of underground water deposits has occurred in the state of Washington. In addition to the use of toxic chemicals, huge amounts of valuable water is used in the fracturing process.

It is important that citizens decide what they think about this important issue and take a subsequent stand. If you are for reasonable and needed regulation of fracturing, which currently is not regulated at all, then please call your congressperson and request that such regulation and control be put into law. Thanks!