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This is environmental and heritage on a local level today. It should be a sound that resonates globally though. The local area I am talking about is in my back yard – Bolsa Chica Wetlands about 2 miles from me. There are not many remaining wetlands in southern California and this one has a long history of many battles.
The battles are environmental preservation and lost heritage preservation. Some small gains in environmental have been won over the years.
• Areas of the wetlands are preserved
• The water flow was reopened to allow the wetlands regain its natural environment
The Battle of Bolsa Chica that I am talking about now is the battle that has been 8000 years in the making a rages quietly in the background of society today. The remains of this ancient culture and the people who thrived here no longer have their resting place. The resting place that has been home for 8000 years. The battle has waged for decades with the final blow coming when the bulldozers rolled in on a misty winter morning a few years ago. The victory was the wetlands and the ocean reclaiming its long obstructed waterways.
About 100 years ago the ocean was blocked. This was to dry part of the wetlands out and have a smaller lagoon for ducks. A large hunting lodge was built so hunters had a nice place to duck hunt locally. As time passed the lodge was torn down and developers began developing homes around the farmlands.
A small-dedicated group that wanted to preserve this area saved the Bolsa Chica wetlands from development. Southern California is part of what is called the Pacific fly way. Migratory birds use it and the wetlands are a crucial stopping place for many of the birds on their long trecherous journey.
That brings us to the Battle of Bolsa Chica. Developers have owned the bluffs that surround the wetlands for many years. Part of the bluffs was developed and these developers in turn paid for part of the restoration of the wetlands to their original state.
During development an ancient and sacred burial ground was unearthed. There has been a long battle to get the remains returned and part of the land for a proper burial ground and hopefully a center about these local people, culture and history.
The Battle of Bolsa Chica is at a crucial point. This battle while not with guns and horses it is in the halls of Huntington Beach and the Coastal Commission. This Battle at Bolsa Chica is every bit as important to our history as any other battle that has been fought.
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The oceans are one of the sinks for Carbon Dioxide, CO2. The sink is where the CO2 is removed from the atmosphere. Right now we are producing more CO2 then can be removed from the atmosphere. Not only can the earth not remove the Carbon Dioxide fast enough, the sinks that do exist for CO2 are saturated and cannot recover, slowing the removal process even further.
How the oceans are becoming more acidic 
CO2 is released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels as one example. (This is Cars Gone Green hence the example of cars burning fossil fuels.) This CO2 in the right amounts actually helps maintain a livable environment for people, plants and animals. Society has been producing CO2 at greater amounts of the past 200 years. CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere by the ocean, up to a ¼ of CO2 output a year is removed by the oceans making it one of the largest sinks. What is happening is that the large amounts that the ocean has been removing is causing a rise in acid levels with in the ocean.
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There is energy in that burning ice and in the next few years companies are going to start to extract that source of energy. So what causes this ice t o burn? It is Methane that is trapped in ice. It is what is called Methane Hydrates. The amount of Methane Hydrates that is believed to be available is more then all other energy sources from fossil fuels – oil, traditional natural gas and coal.
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Carbon Dioxide CO2 is commonly referred to as a greenhouse gas.
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The major source of Carbon Dioxide is the transportation industry; mainly from cars but planes etc also contribute. The developing nations are increasing their usage of cars and hence an increase in Carbon Dioxide.
Emission of CO2
Carbon Dioxide from Hydrocarbons (HC) and coal burning is the result of combustion (or burning of petroleum and coal). From 1980 to 1999 32% of CO2 released from HCs and coal are from transportation. This is one of the largest sources and will continue to grow as the developing nations rely more and more on transportation. To read about global methane levels rising and how methane that is trapped in ice is being released read this article.
Global Warming from Carbon Dioxide
Carbon Dioxide is by far the leading gas that is causing global warming. Radiation enters the atmosphere and reflects off the surface of the earth (some is absorbed). The reflecting radiation is then trapped by gases this is a normal occurrence. Without this warming effect it would be much colder and a much more hostile environment. With man-produced gases such as CO2 entering the atmosphere at ever increasing levels not all can react or escape the atmosphere. This causes the rise in temperature, which we are seeing.
Sinks for Carbon Dioxide
There are natural sinks that take up excess CO2 but those have limits. The major sinks are plants; they convert CO2 to energy and the fact that we are destroying some of the largest plant source sinks, the Amazon. The other major sink is the oceans. Oceans take up excess Carbon Dioxide in the form of carbonates. These two sources cannot take up all the CO2 that we are producing causing an excess. This excess is showing up in the oceans as a rise in the Ph of acid levels, acid ocean waters.
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