The need to engage the public in the ocean acidification issue — an increasing concern in scientific debates — is evident. But finding ways of attracting the attention of audiences can be tricky, highlighted a session on oceans at Planet Under Pressure 2012.

A project carried out by the European Project on Ocean Acidification and the UK Plymouth Marine Laboratory is an example of good practice.

Students from the Ridgeway School (Plymouth, UK) were commissioned to produce an animation film to explain the issue to young people.

The students talked to scientists and conducted their own research in the school and National Marine Aquarium. They were involved in the whole process of animation, including giving voice to the film’s characters.

The result was “The another CO2 problem”, a creative 8-minute animation film, which was awarded with the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Bill Bryson Prize.

Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH and increase in acidity of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. About a quarter of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere goes into the oceans, where it forms carbonic acid.

As the amount of carbon has risen in the atmosphere there has been a corresponding rise of carbon going into the ocean. Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14, representing an increase of almost 30% in "acidity" (H+ ion concentration) in the world's oceans.

This ongoing acidification of the oceans poses a threat to the food chains connected with the oceans.