The ocean is eating itself, and we’re all just watching it happen with our hands in our pockets.

A bombshell study released by the University of St Andrews on November 30, 2025, has revealed that coastal upwelling zones—some of the most biologically productive regions on Earth—are acidifying at rates far exceeding what scientists previously thought possible. The research demonstrates that these critical ecosystems are being subjected to a double assault: rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is dissolving into already-acidic upwelled water, creating a compounding acidification effect that threatens to obliterate the fisheries upon which hundreds of millions of people depend for survival.

The Mechanism of Collapse

The science is straightforward, if terrifying. When atmospheric CO₂ enters the ocean, it dissolves and forms carbonic acid, lowering the pH of seawater. But in upwelling zones—where deep, nutrient-rich water rises to the surface—the problem is exponentially worse. This upwelled water is already naturally acidic, and when additional human-caused CO₂ intensifies this existing acidity, the result is a synergistic catastrophe that nobody adequately prepared for.

Dr. Hana Jurikova, Senior Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, explained the grim reality: “Predicting how upwelling systems will respond to climate change is highly complex, as anthropogenic influences interact with natural sources of ocean acidification. Our research shows that such interactions can amplify environmental change in the California Current System, highlighting the need for similar studies in other regions to better anticipate future change.”

The California Current off the west coast of North America is merely the canary in the coal mine. The Humboldt Current off Peru, the Benguela Current along the west coast of Africa, and the Canary Current are all experiencing similar intensification of acidification. These aren’t abstract scientific concerns—they’re the foundation of global food security.

The Fisheries Apocalypse Nobody Wants to Discuss

Upwelling systems support the vast majority of the world’s commercial fisheries. The creatures that thrive in these zones—from tiny pteropods to commercially valuable fish species—depend on calcium carbonate shells and skeletons to survive. As ocean pH drops, the ocean becomes undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate, making it increasingly difficult for these organisms to build and maintain their shells. It’s like trying to construct a house while the building materials are actively dissolving around you.

The implications are staggering. Coastal communities from Peru to West Africa to California depend on these fisheries for protein, employment, and economic stability. When these systems collapse—and the research suggests they will—we’re not talking about an inconvenience. We’re talking about the displacement of millions, the collapse of regional economies, and a global food crisis that will make current supply chain disruptions look quaint.

Yet this catastrophe is being treated as a secondary concern, a footnote in policy discussions dominated by other priorities.

The Political Abdication

Here’s where the dark comedy becomes genuinely tragic. While scientists are frantically publishing research about accelerating ocean acidification, governments continue making decisions that guarantee the problem will worsen. The most egregious recent example comes from Canada, where Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a new oil pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands to British Columbia’s north coast.

The agreement is so brazenly anti-climate that it prompted Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s former environment minister, to resign from cabinet in protest on November 28, 2025. Guilbeault’s resignation letter was unambiguous: the pipeline deal would push Canada “further from its climate targets” and create “major environmental impacts.” The federal government has even agreed to suspend its oil and gas emissions cap and clean energy regulations in Alberta to facilitate the project.

This is not a hypothetical concern. Every barrel of oil extracted from Alberta’s oilsands and burned globally contributes to atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. As of November 13, 2025, the Mauna Loa Observatory measured atmospheric carbon dioxide at 424.87 parts per million, with global concentrations surpassing 430 ppm in June—a record high. The pipeline deal essentially guarantees that these numbers will continue climbing, accelerating the very ocean acidification process that threatens to destroy the fisheries upon which millions depend.

The question that haunts this situation is whether such decisions represent mere incompetence or something more deliberate. When politicians knowingly approve infrastructure that will intensify a crisis they claim to understand, the distinction becomes academic.

The Broader Pattern of Denial

This Canadian pipeline debacle is not an isolated incident but rather symptomatic of a broader pattern of climate denial dressed up in the language of pragmatism and economic necessity. The narrative is familiar: yes, climate change is real, but we can’t afford to transition away from fossil fuels too quickly. We need a “balanced approach.” We need to “consider all perspectives.”

What this rhetoric obscures is that the costs of inaction are already being paid in real time. British Columbia, long viewed as a leader in Canadian climate action, released an independent review on November 26, 2025, revealing that the province is only halfway to meeting its ambitious 2030 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 2007 levels. Meanwhile, the province’s steelhead populations are collapsing toward extinction, with test fisheries capturing zero steelhead in 2025 and forecasts for spawning populations dropping to fewer than nine in some watersheds—down from thousands just four decades ago.

These aren’t separate problems. The climate crisis is directly driving the ecological collapse. Rising water temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and degraded habitat are all consequences of the same atmospheric CO₂ accumulation that’s acidifying the oceans.

The Uncomfortable Question

The uncomfortable question that mainstream environmental discourse refuses to adequately address is whether the Trump administration and Republican climate denial policies of the previous decade bear direct responsibility for the current crisis. The answer is complicated but ultimately damning.

The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, its rollback of environmental regulations, and its aggressive promotion of fossil fuel extraction created a policy environment that normalized climate denial and delayed critical climate action by years. While the Biden administration attempted to reverse course with the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate initiatives, the damage was already done. The years lost during the Trump era were years in which atmospheric CO₂ continued accumulating, ocean acidification continued accelerating, and ecosystems continued degrading.

The current Canadian pipeline deal suggests that this pattern of prioritizing fossil fuel expansion over climate stability hasn’t ended—it’s merely shifted to different political actors. The underlying logic remains the same: short-term economic gains justify long-term environmental catastrophe.

The Illusion of Solutions

There’s a peculiar irony in how climate advocates and policymakers discuss solutions. Dr. James Rae from the University of St Andrews noted that “the solutions we now have for climate change, like heat pumps and electric vehicles, also fix ocean acidification, so it’s critical that we support them.”

This is technically true but profoundly misleading. Yes, transitioning to renewable energy and electrifying transportation would reduce future CO₂ emissions. But it would not reverse the acidification already occurring. The CO₂ already in the atmosphere will continue dissolving into the oceans for centuries. The acidification crisis is not something we can solve—it’s something we can only prevent from getting worse.

And yet, governments continue approving new fossil fuel infrastructure as though the problem doesn’t exist. This isn’t a failure of technology or economics. It’s a failure of political will, rooted in the continued influence of fossil fuel interests and the persistence of climate denial rhetoric that has been deliberately cultivated over decades.

The Fisheries That Won’t Recover

When upwelling zones acidify beyond certain thresholds, the recovery timeline isn’t measured in years or decades. It’s measured in centuries, if recovery is possible at all. The pteropods, the fish larvae, the entire base of the food web that supports global fisheries—these don’t bounce back quickly.

The communities that depend on these fisheries will face immediate, catastrophic consequences. Fishing communities from Peru to West Africa to California will see their livelihoods evaporate. The protein that feeds hundreds of millions will disappear. The economic disruption will be staggering.

And this will happen not because it was inevitable, but because governments chose to prioritize short-term fossil fuel profits over long-term ecological stability.

Conclusion: The Reckoning Deferred

The research from the University of St Andrews is a clarion call that has already been ignored. While scientists publish papers documenting the accelerating collapse of critical marine ecosystems, politicians sign agreements to extract more oil. While coastal communities face the prospect of fisheries collapse, governments suspend emissions regulations to facilitate fossil fuel expansion.

The tragedy is not that we lack solutions. The tragedy is that we lack the political courage to implement them. The ocean acidification crisis is not a mystery or a matter of scientific uncertainty. It’s a direct consequence of choices made by people in power who have decided that the profits of today matter more than the survival of tomorrow.

The coastal seas are acidifying. The fisheries are collapsing. And the people responsible continue building pipelines.