[phreeza]

I just did some back of the envelope math and I believe dissolving all of the atmospheric co2 into the oceans would lead to a concentration of about 2g/m^3. Not sure what the effect of that on pH would be, but sure sounds like it wouldn't be a lot.

[philipkglass]

It would be a much smaller shift if the CO2 were uniformly mixed through the whole depth of the ocean. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are rising too rapidly for that. It takes thousands of years for the deep ocean to uniformly mix with near-surface water. The acidification effects over the "short" (decades-centuries) time scale are concentrated in the upper few hundred meters of ocean. Unfortunately, those upper few hundred meters are also where the vast majority of oceanic biological productivity are located. The acidification is worst where it's most biologically worrisome.

[delbel]

I did a similar calculation to figure out how much energy it would take to acidify the ocean just a little bit, and it was absolutely ridiculous magnitude of a number it wouldn't be possible even if we tried.

[phyzome]

It just goes to show how anyone can use math + the wrong assumptions to come to the conclusions they already had.

Garbage in, garbage out.