Is ocean acidification just another name for climate change?
No. While ocean acidification and climate change share a common cause (increases in CO2 in the atmosphere), climate change encompasses the effects associated with changes in the Earth’s heat budget (due to the greenhouse effect of CO2 and to a lesser extent other climate reactive gases), which cause global warming and changes in weather patterns. Ocean acidification specifically refers to the lowering of ocean pH resulting from its absorption of human-released CO2 from the atmosphere. Ocean acidification does not include the warming of the ocean. — Christopher L.
