I had to give a presentation to a bunch of grad students last semester about carbon dioxide an its effect on marine water. Lots of news reporters like to say that carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid and that carbonic acid is acidifying the ocean. Carbon dioxide is created every time a fossil fuel is burned, whether oil, gas or coal. It is the chief cause of global warming, along with methane gas, thank you cows, beef cattle and septic tanks. Trying to explain the difference between pH and alkalinity to educated people with no knowledge of reef aquariums or little knowledge of buffer systems was nearly impossible. These were mainly mechanical and petroleum engineers with a conservationist and a forest service person amongst them. None of them had taken any chemistry beyond the minimum two courses required of all science majors. Basically, high school chemistry. I tried showing them chemical equations and diagrams and finally settled on them just accepting that alkalinity protects against drops in pH. And that ocean water was pretty alkaline, and that it would take a lot of acid to make the water not alkaline. I just wanted to jump up and down and say that you had to pass out of the realm of alkaline before you could acidify. I do not think there is such a thing as less alkalining. I could not say things like for every drop of hydrochloric acid it requires a drop of sodium hydroxide to make balanced pH. I attempted to go that way but the professor stopped me and said this was not a chemistry class so I had to approach it from a different question. The total end result was for the students to just understand that the reporters were misusing the term acidification for probably the reason of sensationalism. I still do not know how to fully discuss the calcium system of a reef tank well in laymns terms. Actually I do not know anyone who does. Most reef professionals just recommend that one obtains a book on the subject and learn from it on their own, and that even a degree in chemistry doesn't give one much of an edge in learning to understand it.