The Climate Change Series: Yale Center for Environmental Communication

“In 2007, baby oysters began dying by the millions at the Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery on the Oregon coast. At first, the owners suspected bacterial contamination was to blame. Once they partnered with academics and other regional managers, they found out it was actually ocean acidification,” says Charlotte Regula-Whitefield.

“Regula-Whitefield works with the Oregon Coordinating Council on Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia. When you burn fossil fuels you release carbon dioxide, CO2, and that does get absorbed into our oceans … and it makes the water more acidic,” she says. That more corrosive water can prevent marine species from properly forming shells, which can kill them.