This Is Your Planet On Acid

Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere doesn't just raise global temperatures. It also turns the ocean into a toxic acidic solution and the process feedsback viciously:

Like a tooth dipped in a glass of Coca-Cola, coral reefs, lobsters and other marine creatures that build calcified shells around themselves could soon dissolve as climate change turns the oceans increasingly acidic.

Coral reefs are more than just pretty. They are the rain forests of marine ecosystems. Without them populations of fish and other plants and animals could crash precipitously leading to a disastrous cascade of death marching up the food chain the likes of which earth has not seen in millions of years. How long before the world's reefs could lay in bleached, dusty ruin? Some researchers estimate it could happen within 50 years. Fortunately our crack Whitehouse team led by Vice-President Dick Cheney is on the case ... doing everything he can to devastate the planet and wreak as much havoc as possible long after he and his gang of killer klowns leave office:

While George Bush and other G8 leaders were busy touting their agreement in Hokkaido to halve global emissions by 2050 as "a significant step forward" for climate action, this week's real story on climate flew under the radar back in the US, as a former Environmental Protection Agency official went public with allegations that vice-president Dick Cheney's office interfered directly with information about the threats posed to humankind by climate change.

Because we can't let anything threaten even one penny of Cindy McCain's portfolio or Phil Gramm's UBS bonus. And who can blame them in these uncertain times? After eight years of GOP mismanagement, the dismal US stock market is in urgent need of all the short-term bail out help it can get. So the ocean turns into a corrosive soup. Won't any of you selfish middle class taxpayers stop whining and please think of the immediate needs of our nation's poor, downtrodden zillionaires?