An Empirical Study of Fossil Fuel Emissions and Ocean Acidification

Abstract

Detrended correlation analysis of annual fossil fuel emissions and mean annual changes in ocean CO2 concentration in the sample period 1958-2014 shows no evidence that the two series are causally related. The finding is inconsistent with the claim that fossil fuel emissions have a measurable impact on the CO2 concentration of the oceans at a lag and time scale of one year. The results are presented with the disclaimer that the CO2 data time series is discontinuous.

Keywords: ocean acidification, global warming, climate change, Monte Carlo simulation, anthropogenic emissions, carbon dioxide, detrended analysis, human emissions, fossil fuels, bootstrap, numerical methods, natural variability