Ocean acidification is a change in the properties of ocean water that can be harmful for plants and animals. Scientists have observed that the ocean is becoming more acidic as its water absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Ocean waves off the coast of New Zealand. Credit: Public domain

Have you ever heard someone call water “H₂O”? That nickname means that water is a combination of two chemicals called hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O). All water contains hydrogen and oxygen. However, most water has a lot of other stuff in it, too.

For example, ocean water has salt in it, while water from a river or lake does not. The amount of salt is one feature, or property, of water. This property is very important to living things. Most freshwater plants and animals can’t survive if water is too salty — and most ocean life can’t survive in the fresh water of rivers and lakes.

Clownfish need to live in the salty ocean water to survive. Credit: Public domain

Water also has other properties that need to stay in balance for living things to thrive. One of those properties is called acidity.

What is acidity?

An acid is a substance that can cause certain changes when it is combined with water or a metal. Acidity is the amount of acid in water.

Lemon juice and vinegar are examples of foods that have acids in them. The acid in lemon juice is what makes it taste sour.

Acids can cause chemical reactions when they touch metal, rocks or other surfaces. The chemical reactions are known for eating away at, dissolving or damaging other substances.

Metal that comes into contact with acid can form rust on the surface. Credit: Public domain

The acidity of a substance is measured using the pH scale. A substance with a pH of 7 is considered neutral. An acid has a pH less than 7. Anything with a pH higher than 7 is called a base.

Here is a list of how everyday things measure up on the pH scale:

• 0: Battery Acid
• 1: Stomach Acid
• 2: Vinegar
• 3: Orange Juice
• 4: Tomato Juice
• 5: Coffee
• 6: Milk
• 7: Pure Water
• 8: Ocean Water
• 9: Toothpaste
• 10: Mild detergent
• 11: Window cleaner
• 12: Hair straighteners
• 13: Bleach
• 14: Drain Cleaner

What causes ocean acidification?

Ocean water is approximately pH 8. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As you probably noticed in the list above, ocean water has a pH of approximately 8. That means ocean water is fairly neutral — and slightly basic. However, in the past 100-200 years, scientists have observed that ocean water has become 30 percent more acidic.

Why is this happening? Well, many human activities — such as exhaust from cars and factories—release a gas called carbon dioxide into the air. Extra carbon dioxide can cause problems in the atmosphere, and it can also have an impact on the acidity of the ocean.

Extra carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere is absorbed by the top layer of the ocean. And when carbon dioxide absorbs into water, it makes the water more acidic.

Why does ocean acidification matter?

Coral reefs are important to ocean ecosystems. Credit: Greg McFall/NOAA

Just like acids can cause rust and other damage to surfaces on land, acidic ocean water can affect surfaces underwater. Acids can break down the shells of animals that live in the sea. Because ocean water has become more acidic, some animals — like certain oysters and clams — can no longer make or keep their shells.

For example, acidic ocean water can cause coral to grow more slowly and weaken coral reefs. These reefs are an important home for many living things. Their health is essential to many ecosystems.

How is NASA studying ocean acidification?

The red areas in this map are spots with high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The map was created using information collected by NASA’s OCO-2 satellite. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA satellites are orbiting and collecting information about Earth all the time. One satellite, called Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), collects information about carbon dioxide in our atmosphere while it circles Earth.

Scientists can use these measurements to better understand the relationship between carbon dioxide and changes in the ocean’s acidity.

1376 – The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin leading rats out of town is said to have occurred on this date.

1587 – A second English colony was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. The colony vanished under mysterious circumstances. 

1796 – Cleveland was founded by General Moses Cleaveland.

1798 – The USS Constitution was underway and out to sea for the first time since being launched on October 21, 1797.

1812 – English troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated the French at the Battle of Salamanca in Spain.

1926 – Babe Ruth caught a baseball at Mitchell Field in New York. The ball had been dropped from an airplane flying at 250 feet.

1933 – Wiley Post ended his around-the-world flight. He had traveled 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

1937 – The U.S. Senate rejected President Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court. 

1943 – American forces led by General George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily.

1941 – Plans for the Pentagon were presented to the House Subcommittee on Appropriations.

1955 – U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon chaired a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC. It was the first time that a Vice-President had carried out the task. 

1975 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee had his U.S. citizenship restored by the U.S. Congress.

1987 – The U.S. began its policy of escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers up and down the Persian Gulf to protect them from possible attack by Iran.

1998 – Iran tested medium-range missile, capable of reaching Israel or Saudi Arabia.

2000 – Astronomers at the University of Arizona announced that they had found a 17th moon orbiting Jupiter. 

2003 – In northern Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s sons Odai and Qusai died after a gunfight with U.S. forces.

2004 – The September 11 commission’s final report was released. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited “deep institutional failings within our government.” The report was released to White House officials the day before.

2009 – The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurred over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

The Women’s Rights Movement and the Women of Seneca Falls 

From The Recorder, August 3, 1848 (Syracuse).
Library of Congress

Meredith Worthen July 13, 2017

Amelia Jenks Bloomer was an American newspaper editor, women’s rights and temperance advocate. Even though she did not create the women’s clothing reform style known as bloomers, her name became associated with it because of her early and strong advocacy. In her work with The Lily, she became the first woman to own, operate and edit a newspaper for women.

On July 19-20, 1848, hundreds of women and men met in Seneca Falls, New York for the very first woman’s rights convention in the United States. Its purpose was “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.” Organized by women for women, many consider the Seneca Falls Convention to be the event that triggered and solidified the women’s rights movement in America. Historians and other scholars agree that the leaders of the Seneca Falls Convention played a significant role in shaping the first wave of feminism in the United States and starting the fight for women’s suffrage.

Stanton and Mott
The leaders of the Seneca Falls Convention were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friend Lucretia Mott. These two abolitionists met nearly ten years earlier at London’s World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. Although they were outspoken activists against slavery and other social injustices, their voices remained unheard in a world where men’s voices dominated. Together, the duo vowed to work toward a society where women’s voices would resound loudly and their rights would be equal to men’s.

Stanton and Mott were a likely pair from the start. Both northerners (Stanton from New York and Mott from Massachusetts), they were outspoken activists from early ages. In her 20s, Mott became a progressive Quaker minister well-known for her speeches against social injustice. At the age of 17, Stanton graduated from Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary and began her fight for abolition, temperance, and women’s rights. With Stanton’s eloquent writing skills and Mott’s powerful speaking abilities, the two were destined to be heard.

Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances

Drafted by Stanton and introduced at the Seneca Falls Convention, the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances was a treatise modeled closely on the Declaration of Independence. Stanton added “women” to its preamble proclaiming “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…” She went on to describe the injustices, inequities, and invisibilities that American women felt and ended the Declaration with a call for action. Stanton wanted U.S. women to organize and fight for equality. On the second day of the convention, the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances was ratified by the assembly which included Frederick Douglass. They also passed 12 resolutions that specifically necessitated equal rights for women including the ninth resolution that proclaimed women’s right to vote. This effectively marked the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in America.

The Lasting Significance of Seneca Falls

Following the Seneca Falls Convention, many national woman’s rights conventions were held annually throughout the United States with many focusing on women’s suffrage. Serving as its first President, Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 along with Susan B. Anthony. More than 70 years after the women’s suffrage movement began in Seneca Falls, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920. This landmark victory changed American women’s lives forever and later ushered in new waves of feminism focused on a wide range of issues including reproductive rights, sexuality, family, the workplace, immigration, and gender equality.

Commemorating the Women of Seneca Falls

In 1948, a U.S. postage stamp commemorating the Seneca Falls Convention titled “100 Years of Progress of Women” was issued. It featured Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Lucretia Mott

A Seneca Falls Convention commemorative stamp was issued in 1948.
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

In 1980, a seven-acre park was established in Seneca Falls and named “The Women’s Rights National Historical Park.” It includes the location of the Seneca Falls Convention (Wesleyan Methodist Church), Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home which she referred to as “the Center of the Rebellion,” and the M’Clintock House where Mary Ann M’Clintock hosted a planning session on July 16, 1848 for the Convention and where the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances was written.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home at 32 Washington Street in Seneca Falls, NY/
(Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)

In 2016, the U.S. treasury announced new changes. Keeping in theme with the changes to the $20 bill which include Harriet Tubman prominently featured on its front, on the back of the newly redesigned $10 bill sit five powerful women who contributed to the women’s suffrage movement including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and Sojourner Truth.
Although these women have been celebrated in numerous ways throughout history, this is the first time Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott will be featured on U.S. cash. Their roles in the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention secured them a place in women’s rights history and it is notable that they will be commemorated in this way. As pioneers in the drive for women’s suffrage and anti-slavery activism, their voices at the Seneca Falls Convention continue to resound loudly.

Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney

The Medal of Honor was awarded to U.S. Army Sgt. William H. Carney, Company C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment, for Gallantry at Fort Wagner, S.C., July 18, 1863, issued in 1900. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Carl J. Cruz Collection)

Of the 3,498 service members who have received the Medal of Honor throughout U.S. history, only 88 have been black.

In recognition of African American History Month, we’re sharing the stories of the brave men who so gallantly risked and gave their lives for others, even in times when others weren’t willing to do the same in return.

We’ll start with the first black recipient of the award: Army Sgt. William H. Carney, who earned the honor for protecting one of the United States’ greatest symbols during the Civil War — the American flag.

Carney was born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1840. His family was eventually granted freedom and moved to Massachusetts, where Carney was eager to learn and secretly got involved in academics, despite laws and restrictions that banned blacks from learning to read and write.

Carney had wanted to pursue a career in the church, but when the Civil War broke out, he decided the best way he could serve God was by serving in the military to help free the oppressed.

In March 1863, Carney joined the Union Army and was attached to Company C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment, the first official black unit recruited for the Union in the north. Forty other black men served with him, including two of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ sons.

Within a few months, Carney’s training would be put to the ultimate test during the unit’s first major combat mission in Charleston, South Carolina.

On July 18, 1863, the soldiers of Carney’s regiment led the charge on Fort Wagner. During the battle, the unit’s color guard was shot. Carney, who was just a few feet away, saw the dying man stumble, and he scrambled to catch the falling flag.

Despite suffering several serious gunshot wounds himself, Carney kept the symbol of the Union held high as he crawled up the hill to the walls of Fort Wagner, urging his fellow troops to follow him. He planted the flag in the sand at the base of the fort and held it upright until his near-lifeless body was rescued.

Even then, though, he didn’t give it up. Many witnesses said Carney refused to give the flag to his rescuers, holding onto it tighter until, with assistance, he made it to the Union’s temporary barracks.

Carney lost a lot of blood and nearly lost his life, but not once did he allow the flag to touch the ground. His heroics inspired other soldiers that day and were crucial to the North securing victory at Fort Wagner. Carney was promoted to the rank of sergeant for his actions.

For his bravery, Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 23, 1900.

Carney’s legacy serves as a shining example of the patriotism that Americans felt at that time, despite the color of their skin.

As for the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment in which Carney served? It was disestablished long ago but reactivated in 2008. It now serves as a National Guard ceremonial unit that renders honorary funerals and state functions. It was even invited to march in President Barack Obama’s inaugural parade.