Steele's Ocean Acidification Horror Story, a closer look.

Examining some of the claims in the YouTube video "Recovering Whales, Ocean Acidification, and Climate Horror Stories," I wrote 
Dr. Evans, who's data Steele uses and he responded to my questions with an enlightening email, along with suggestions for further investigation.   Now that I've spent more time looking into the question of 'what' and 'how' scientists know about ocean acidification, I've decided to give Steele's talk from 2:45 to 5:59 another dissection.  

For students of The Art of the Republican Attack on Science, this will be worth your while. 
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Recovering Whales, Ocean Acidification, and Climate Horror Stories by JIm Steele (2:45-5:59)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooaZLoJXhu4&t=2m45s

Part 3 Jim Steele's Presentation to the Life Members of the International Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Jim is the author of "Landscapes & Cycles: An Environmentalist's Journey to Climate Skepticism"

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2:45 - "Here's your question about ocean acidification.  This upwelling is a tremendous benefit.  If you do a vertical profile of the ocean, if you look at the surface the pH is gonna be around 8.2-8.3, as you drop down what you see is that it very quickly it becomes more acidic, because bacteria digest everything, we start to releasing the carbon. So you can see in the upwelling zones you can see it's down to 7.7 And when it upwells it brings it right to the coast"

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First off, notice Jim drawing his audience's attention away from how the oceans absorb CO2, instead focusing on regional upwelling of abyssal acidic waters along the continental shelf.

That's the way magicians work, draw the eye away from where the trick is happening.

Listen in on Steele's talk.  You'll hear a hint of the problem he chooses to ignore.  The surface of the ocean is on average basic ~8.2-8.3pH as Steele tells us {7 being neutral}.  CO2 is acidic and easily binds with water molecules.  We live in a world where the atmospheric CO2 concentration has skyrocketed by ~40% in a geologic blink.  How will that system behave?    How can Steele's IEEE audience be blind to that?
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3:20 - "People say on average the pH is getting more, they don't know that.  It's a model."

Recovering Whales, Ocean Acidification the Jim Steele Horror Story - reviewed

Or, what a tangled web Steele weaves.

There's a tactic called the "Gish Gallop" where a speaker tosses out so many varied claims that it's impossible for the serious listener to keep up.  Steele has perfected this skill, but it's easy for him since his audience (Life Members of the International Electrical and Electronic Engineers) only wants to hear reassurances that they have nothing to worry about and can continue consuming like there's no tomorrow. 

I'm more serious and skeptical, so I've taken the time to chase after the various bones Steele tosses out.  This post will focus on his claims regarding whale population recovery thanks to La Nina along with Steele's bizarre take on the ocean acidification story*
*{for an update on that mischief, link here}. 

Recovering Whales, Ocean Acidification, and Climate Horror Stories by JIm Steele (considering 0:00 to 6:00)

update December 8, 2014

Wiley Evans, Ph.D. shares some thoughts regarding Steele's description of ocean pH studies.

Jim Steele, why you "cleansing" YouTube comments? W.U.W.T.?

I've been spending the past couple days reviewing Jim Steele's third video in his series dedicated to attacking climate scientists.  While listening to the video and transcribing his talk, (this time without the marginal aid of YouTube's transcriptions, since it appears he turned it off for this video), I've also been researching his claims - which offer up more puzzles than answers. So, I've been posting constructive questions to Jim Steele in the comments section, along with requests for citations - since most of the time he doesn't offer any information about the data and "official" claims he presents.  

My questions seemed to be getting posted, yet I just discovered that they appear to only being visible under my log in and that anyone else viewing this video sees none of my reasonable, if skeptical questions.  

What can I say, except that, here is yet another example of the dishonest battle against rational, constructive discussion, that this WattsUpWithThat team wages.  Yet this Mr. Steele is the same man who has the chutzpah to quote Carl Sagan and lecture scientists about how to conduct an honest investigation.

My review will follow, but for now I want to post the questions that Steele has cleansed from his one sided presentation.

Recovering Whales, Ocean Acidification, and Climate Horror Stories by JIm Steele