WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ocean acidification caused a mass extinction of marine life 66 million years ago, research into tiny shell fossils has shown.
This in turn caused acid rain and large scale acidification of the world's oceans, prompting a mass extinction of most marine and land based life, including all dinosaurs.
At least one quarter of the CO2 released by burning coal, oil and gas doesn't stay in the air, but instead dissolves into the ocean, according to The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, a US government initiative, and The Smithsonian Ocean Portal.
So far, ocean pH has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 since the industrial revolution, and is expected to fall by another 0.3 to 0.4 pH units by the end of the century, it added.
Ocean acidification has already caused massive die-offs of oysters in the Pacific Northwest.