The current rate of ocean acidification is 50 times faster than known historical change. The oceans are absorbing about a quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere annually. Over the last 250 years, the oceans have absorbed 560 billion tons of CO2, increasing the acidity of surface waters by 30%. In high emission pathway projections, pH could be reduced from the current level of 8.1 to as low as 7.8 by the end of the century. Such large and rapid changes in ocean pH have not been experienced on Earth for the past 100 million years and it is unclear whether and how quickly ocean life could adapt.

As an environmental studies and studio art major, my motivation is to minimize the abstract space between daily human activity and a displaced impact. In Anthropocene rhetoric, irreversible environmental harms emerge mostly from the actions of privileged humans. By contributing to global outputs of CO2 with our local actions, we are impacting spaces that are geographically distant. Either from denial or complacency, we are not always aware that we are complicit. This piece is not meant to serve as a solution but as an obituary for an intricate ecosystem that we are destroying.