Endless Summer: How Climate Change Could Wipe Out Surfing | ThinkProgress

Dan Ross began surfing when he was five years old. Growing up in Australia, Ross dreamed of becoming a professional surfer. “As kids, my brother and I practically lived in the ocean at our local beaches and experienced its beauty on so many levels.” Twenty-five years later and now a member of the ASP World Tour, Ross travels the world for surfing and he’s seeing the dramatic toll climate change has begun to take — threatening coastal communities and the sport he loves.

“In Australia, I’ve noticed higher tide lines and extreme beach erosion; its apparent all along the east coast … In America, I’ve seen places where houses are literally falling into the sea and you can really see the effects in California at Malibu and Point Dume.” Surfing-2And Ross says these changes are even more frightening for surf destinations such as the Maldives — with its highest point only 2 meters above sea level, it is currently at risk of being the first island nation to be submerged. “What would they do?” he wonders.

Both the sport and culture of surfing are increasingly at risk due to the effects of climate change. Quite simply, surfing is reliant on healthy oceans and coasts. So as climate change drives fundamental changes — sea-level rise, ocean warming and acidification — the result could be a great readjusting, and potential loss, of the world’s surf communities.

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Another dangerous byproduct of burning fossil fuels, ocean acidification threatens to upend the entire balance of the oceans and wipe out some of the world’s premier surf destinations in the process.Surfing-3 As we pump increasing amounts of carbon pollution into the atmosphere, it’s not just wreaking havoc on air quality. The oceans are the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing one-quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted every year. The more carbon dioxide absorbed, the more acidic the water becomes. As a result, plankton that form the base of the ocean food web, and shellfish like oysters and clams, no longer have the calcium carbonate needed to form their shells and exoskeletons, which poses a tremendous risk to all marine life.

The oceans are also the primary source of heat absorption for the planet, and analyses from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, show that more than 90 percent of the warming that has happened on Earth over the past 50 years has occurred in the ocean.

Endless Summer: How Climate Change Could Wipe Out Surfing | ThinkProgress