A move by state legislators throughout New England to address ocean acidification is an important first step in what will likely be a long journey toward improving the quality of our waters. By speaking as one, the lawmakers hope that their combined voices will resound all the louder at the federal level and perhaps command more attention and funding before it is too late.

Scientists have long worried that acidification may lead to a serious and perhaps irreversible impact on the world’s oceans, although the exact science regarding it remains mostly speculative. What scientists do know is that acidification is almost certainly tied to a better-known, although no less controversial, topic: climate change.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased from 280 parts per million to more than 394 parts per million over the past 250 years. Most scientists link this increase to mankind's burning of fossil fuels.

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