Terms such as ‘red tide’ and ‘global warming’ are catchy but
lead to misconceptions. Words matter. Take the term “red tide,”
which is the popularized way of talking about blooms of harmful
marine algae. This common terminology is a misnomer because the
blooms are not always red and their movement is largely
unrelated to tides. Also, many species of algae that cause red
discoloration are not harmful. A relatively new issue catching
public attention is “ocean acidification.” “Ocean acidification”
is a term used to describe changes in seawater chemistry due to
increasing amounts of CO2 being taken up by the ocean. When CO2
from the atmosphere dissolves into seawater, a series of
chemical reactions occurs that effectively lower seawater pH.
But while ocean pH is definitely decreasing, the ocean is not
actually becoming acidic — just less basic. The world’s oceans
are not predicted to drop below a pH of 7.0 (neutral on the pH
scale). That doesn’t mean we should downplay the severity of
changing ocean chemistry. Ex