Video Abstract Transcript for

Attributing ocean acidification to major carbon producers
R. Licker1, B. Ekwurzel1, S.C. Doney2, S.R. Cooley3, I.D. Lima4, R. Heede5, and P.C. Frumhoff6

1Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC, USA
2University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
3Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, MA, USA
4Ocean Conservancy, Washington, DC, USA
5Climate Accountability Institute, Snowmass, CO, USA
6Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA, USA


Hi, I’m Rachel Licker, I’m a Senior Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

The ocean is acidifying at a rate that’s unparalleled in the last 66 million years, which has been harming marine life and the livelihoods of coastal communities.  

Scientists have known for a long time that burning fossil fuels is by far the largest contributor to ocean acidification, but we weren’t able to track how any one carbon producer contributed to the problem, and in what way. 

Now in a new study, my colleagues and I found that the emissions tied to the world’s largest carbon producers led to more than half of the acidification of the world’s ocean since pre-industrial times. 

We used a dataset that was published by Rick Heede and adapted methodology from a groundbreaking 2017 study that linked climate impacts—specifically sea level rise and global temperature change—to the emissions of these large carbon producers. 

We examined companies’ emissions over two time periods: 1880 to 2015 and 1965 to 2015. Recent research has shown that the oil and gas industry was aware of the climate-related risks of their products since at least the mid-1960s, according to internal documents from these companies.

Ocean acidification and its impacts are not uniform around the world, so the team used a 3D ocean simulation model to identify regions where ocean acidification has been particularly large [and where ocean acidification is creating large risks for nearby communities]. These regions were the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, the Peru Current, the California Current, the Coral Triangle in Southeast Asia, and the Arctic [Ocean]. 

This study can inform broader societal discussions about climate responsibility and the share of the responsibility that large carbon producers have.