Alaska Dispatch

Lou Dematteis/Spectral Q/Handout photos

On Sunday more than a hundred Homer boats - fishing vessels, skiffs, kayaks - assembled in Mud Bay, on the inside of the Homer Spit, to spell out "SOS" and "acid ocean." This was a combination of political demonstration and performance art; the assemblage was carefully choreographed by organizers, including the internationally known aerial artist John Quigley, and then photographed from above by a helicopter. The idea was to send a message to Alaska's Congressional delegation and all senators-who should soon be taking up climate change legislation-that Alaska's fisheries are at risk from ocean acidification, the "evil twin" of climate change.

I thought about joining the demonstration in my little red kayak. As a former commercial salmon fisherman and a coastal resident, I care very much about the future of our fisheries and fishing communities. I care very much that our human actions in burning fossil fuels and clearing forests have altered the earth's atmosphere and oceans to a seriously dangerous extent. And I care that the longer we refuse to address the root problem-all the carbon we continue to release-the more suffering there will eventually (sooner than we might have thought) be.

But I also felt conflicted about joining in. There was something ironic - I won't say perverse - about burning up fuel to protest burning fuel. I would have had to drive to get my kayak from where it's stored, then drive to the base of the Spit.

Do we need to put on a three-ring circus to get the attention of an indifferent public and our timid politicians?

The answer is yes. If the compelling science and public policy arguments, and the media to report these, could do the job, we would long ago have joined the rest of the world in making at least a semi-serious effort at addressing our carbon emissions. But this is America, where facts don't matter and media events do. I cannot dispute the value of a few hundred people taking part of a holiday weekend to make a visual statement about an economic and political cause. I hoped with all my heart that the effort would help educate more people and that the resulting images would impress and influence decision-makers.

For me, though, the right personal response was to not burn fuel. Instead I got on my bike and rode to the Spit to watch from ashore.

From one of the birding stations along the Spit bike trail, my biking partner and I watched candy-colored kayaks gathering in Mud Bay with orange buoys and a few larger boats. It was early yet, and the main flotilla was yet to leave the harbor on the end of the Spit.

Others, viewers like us, had also sought the bike trail, on bikes and roller blades, with baby strollers and dogs, or had climbed down to the beach to sit on logs and watch. Cars were parked wherever there were pull-outs. Under blue skies, in remarkably warm weather-when else have I worn shorts in September?-the day felt festive, the cause worthy.

Farther out the Spit, we stopped when we saw a friend starting up his truck. I mentioned the demonstration.

Our friend said, "Too bad it's not true," and then went off on a rant about how climate change and ocean acidification were lies perpetuated by liars.

My biking companion said, "Phil, it's not lies. It's chemistry."

Now, I'm assuming that Alaska Dispatch readers read reputable sources and do know, by this time, some basics about ocean acidification. There are plenty of excellent sources on-line, including the site of EPOCA, the European Project on Ocean Acidification, which is a consortium of more than 100 acidification researchers. See their blog for some basic EPOCA information about the subject, including a two-minute video and an article about why the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill is so important for our oceans, plus lots more links.

The very basic facts, however, are these: the oceans have absorbed about a third of the anthropogenic carbon that's been added to the atmosphere. This has changed the pH so that it's now about 30 percent more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution began. (Sea water is naturally alkaline, so it still is, but less so, becoming more acidic.) This chemistry change makes it harder for creatures with shells (including species of zooplankton at the bottom of the food chain) to build shells. In Alaska, the very things that make our waters so productive for fisheries-cold water, broad and shallow continental shelves, and biological richness-make them especially vulnerable to OA. (Get used to the abbreviation-you'll be seeing it a lot in future years.) Alaskan researchers have been making some disturbing findings.

What do you say to someone like Phil who does not believe the science because he does not believe the science? This is our faith-based and democratic country, where we rely not on reason but a system of subjective belief, where anyone's belief is supposed to be as good as anyone else's. (Congressman Don Young stated that explicitly in denying that Alaska's polar bears had anything to worry about. "My opinion is as good as theirs," he said, rejecting the scientific data of researchers.)

Denial is a powerful response, and it's not just stupid people who wish to ignore their own peril.

I peddled across the road to where volunteers were setting up by the water taxi offices for an after-party. Alan Parks, outreach coordinator for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council and the main organizer, told me that the response to the call for boats and boaters had been overwhelming. And by morning the aerial photo would be circulating around the world. But he was looking westward with concern, as fog rolled towards us.

In minutes, we could barely see across the road. We peddled back up the Spit, goosebumpy now in the damp, and stopped at the same bird station. Out in Mud Bay we could see nothing but a wall of gray. The thumping of helicopter blades carried to us from the airport-the big bird ready but grounded. The day breeze would soon sweep the fog away, but it was too chilly to hang around. We rode on home as a steady stream of cars and trucks, vacating the Spit, passed us all the way.

That evening, I watched the Channel 2 news report about the event, with fog-streaked aerial shots and an interview with a fishing family concerned about its livelihood. The reporter said ocean acidification is caused by pollution and warming. Wrong! While it's true that anthropogenic carbon dioxide is a pollutant and should be regulated as one, pollution in general has nothing to do with OA, and warming is an entirely different problem. C'mon, Channel 2 reporters! Is it so hard to read and interpret a press release? Apparently it's way too hard to do any independent research or fact-check your own work. No wonder the public is confused and so easily manipulated by those who want to spread misinformation and doubt, to maintain our destructive "business as usual" path.

Nancy Lord is a Homer-based writer. Her new book is "Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life."

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