Ocean Acidification: The Slow Climate Risk No One Sees | Myron Roth

The ocean absorbs roughly a quarter of the CO₂ we emit. That buffering comes with a cost: chemical changes that are quietly reshaping marine ecosystems and the industries that depend on them. A drop from $2.3B to $1.6B in a single year is a clear signal that something bigger is changing in BC’s seafood sector. In this episode, Lourdes welcomes back Myron Roth for his third conversation on *Before the Tipping Point*. With two decades spent tracking slow-moving climate threats, Myron focuses on the risks that rarely trend until they become irreversible and expensive. Together, they explore: - Ocean acidification as the blueprint for “invisible” risk. It builds up slowly, then can cause big issues once it reaches a certain point. - The OASIS project’s decade-long journey from long-shot idea to real-world adaptation, including a selective breeding program that now produces ~80% of BC’s oyster seed locally, a major shift from heavy reliance on imports in 2007. - The emerging role of AI in climate modeling, including an unglamorous but critical issue: better prediction often means higher energy use, and the tradeoffs are rarely discussed transparently. This episode creates a clear differentiation between a catastrophic hazard (fire, flood) and a slow-onset risk (acidification, ecosystem drift) and why that distinction changes how we plan, invest, and respond. Support the show