MONACO, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Greenhouse gases are putting oceans at risk of becoming too acidic to support reefs and marine life, scientists at a U.N. forum in Monaco warned Friday.
More than 150 scientists called on governments to take immediate action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the Monaco Declaration on Ocean Acidification drafted during the conference, the United Nations said in a news release.
In the declaration, the marine scientists from 26 countries said acidity levels were accelerating and their negative impacts could be corralled by reducing the amounts of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere.
Prince Albert II of Monaco urged political leaders to consider the declaration before negotiations at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of this year.
"The chemistry is so fundamental and changes so rapid and severe that impacts on organisms appear unavoidable," said James Orr of the U.N. Marine Environment Laboratories, a subsidiary of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
