Perreault Magazine - 77 -
Pollution — from oil spills, coal plants and other sources — can negatively impact the health of the oceans and both the creatures and people who depend on them. Oceana is working to stop ocean pollution from all of these sources in order to protect marine biodiversity and abundance.
The vast oceans act as a tremendous carbon sink, absorbing about one-third of carbon dioxide emissions. Climate-changing gases from offshore oil and other fossil fuels are changing ocean chemistry, saturating the oceans with carbon dioxide and making them increasingly acidic.
Acidification is already leading to the degradation of coral reef habitats and negatively impacting some commercially important fisheries, like shellfish. Oceana advocates for clean energy, like windpower — and particularly for energy that comes from the ocean — in order to reduce climate-changing gases and the impact of ocean acidification and climate change on our seas.