"The world"s oceans are slowly getting more acidic."say scientists.The researchers from California
report that the change is taking place in response to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The lowering of the waters"pH value is not great at the moment but could cause a serious threat to
current ocean life if it continues, they warn. Ken Caldeira and Michael Wickett, from the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, report their concerns in the journal Nature.
Increasing use of oil fuels means more carbon dioxide is going into the air, and most of it will eventually be
absorbed by seawater. Once in the water, it reacts to form carbonic acid. Scientists believe that the
oceans have already become slightly more acidic over the last century.
These researchers have tried to predict what will happen in the future by combining what we know
about the history of the oceans with computer models of climate change."This level of acidity will get
much more extreme in the future if we continue releasing COZ into the atmosphere," said Dr Caldeira.
"And we predict the amount of future acidity will exceed(超过)anything we have seen over the last
several hundred million years, let alone perhaps after rare disastrous events such as asteroid(小1j-%+)
impacts."
However, it is not absolutely clear what that means for ocean life.Most organisms live near the
surface, where the greatest pH change would be expected to occur, but deep-ocean life forms may
be more sensitive to pH changes.Coral reefs and other organisms whose shells contain calcium carbonate(小行星) may be particularly affected if the water"s acidity levels keep going up, the team predict. They
could find it much more difficult to build these structures in water with a lower pH.
In recent years some people have suggested storing carbon dioxide from power stations in the deep
ocean as a way of dealing with global warming.But Dr Caldeira said that such a strategy should now be
re-considered. "Previously, most experts had looked at ocean absorption of carbon dioxide as a good
thing一because in releasing CO2 into the atmosphere we warm the planet, and when CO2, is absorbed
by the ocean, it reduces the amount of greenhouse warming."
A. the lower water pH value
B.the warming atmosphere
C.the higher level of COZ in the air
D.the increasing use of oil fuels
Kelly Reeves was getting ready for a trip when her phone slipped into a sink full of water.
Panic moment! She quickly picked up the wet phone and tried to turn it on, but nothing worked.
Her first reaction? She got dressed, drove to the nearest store, and bought a new model at full price.
A new study finds that fear of losing your phone is a common illness. About 66 percent of those
surveyed suffer from nomophobia or "no mobile phone phobia". Interestingly, more women worry
about losing their phone than men.
Fortunately, there"s a solution.
The first step is to figure out if you have nomophobia. Checking your phone too often is one thing,
but the true sign of a problem is that you can"t conduct business or go about your routine when the fear
becomes so severe.
Do you go to unusual lengths to make sure you have your phone? That"s another sign of a problem.
If you find you check your phone plenty of times per hour, or a total of an hour per day, there may be
a problem.
Some of the treatments are similar to those for treating anxiety attacks: Leaving the phone behind
and not checking e-mail or text messages, and then learning to tolerate the after anxiety. Even if this
leads to a high level of worry and stress, the solution is to push through the fear and learn to deal with
not having your phone.
Of course, there are also technological alternatives. Luis Levy, a co-founder at Novy PR, says he
uses an application called Cerberus that can automatically track the location of his phone. To find it, he
can just go to a Web site and see the phone"s location.
He also insures his phone through a service called Asurion. The company"s description of its product
reads like a prescription for anxiety: "60 million phones are lost, stolen or damaged each year. You"ll
have complete peace of mind knowing that your phone is protected and you can quickly reconnect
with family,friends and work, as soon as the very next day!"
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