Climate Letter #371

All about the oceans’ heat uptake, and why it could diminish. This is one of the clearest reviews you will ever read on this subject, and also one of the scariest. The whole concept of “global warming’ is put in the best possible perspective. It is very serious stuff. Let me introduce this story by quoting several of the key passages:

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**A raft of recent research finds that the ocean has been heating faster and deeper than scientists had previously thought. And there are new signs that the oceans might be starting to release some of that pent-up thermal energy, which could contribute to significant global temperature increases in the coming years.
**”The ocean has been….amassing more than 2 X 1023 joules of energy — the equivalent of roughly five Hiroshima bombs exploding every second — since 1990.”
**”If you want to measure the energy imbalance of the earth, the ocean temperature gives you nearly the whole story,”
**Some of that banked energy will discharge into air at the ocean surface, however, and the atmosphere will heat up. Given the enormity of the ocean’s thermal load, even a tiny change has a big impact.  (The oceans hold about 93 times as much heat as the atmosphere, where “climate” is located.)
**….you don’t need to bring heat back up from the ocean to the surface to get future warming — you just need to slow down the heat uptake by the ocean….(Almost all of the heat produced from solar radiation and held in by greenhouses gases is first collected right at the Earth’s surface and then soon grabbed by the oceans.  Some of it melts ice and some is grabbed by the land.  The little that is left stays in the air.)
**….vertical heat transfer to the ocean depths could already be declining.
**As for marine life, ocean heating already presents multiple, intensifying dangers. Warmer water holds less oxygen and other gases. On top of that, warming increases ocean stratification, which blocks the movement of oxygen-rich surface waters to lower depths.
**A further concern is that temperature increases could diminish the ocean’s vital role as a carbon sink.
All of these things, and much more, are explained in the story in ways that anyone can easily understand. Now read the whole thing, and keep it in your memory.
Extra comment: Here is one more quote, from near the end: “We have the technology today to make a positive impact on climate, and all we lack is the political will….” The total message is that potential changes in ocean behavior may not leave us much time to make the necessary transition to alternative forms of energy. Everyone’s help will be needed to get rid of the political roadblocks—which are very, very real in some places—as quickly as possible.
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A good summary of California’s drought conditions. The growing presence of heat waves, which are themselves dangerous, is a big part of the mix, helping to intensify the drought in several ways.

Here is a short video from CBS news that helps illustrate the problem:
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Who is investing in utility-scale solar power? Here is a list of the world’s leaders, with the top three, including a Warren Buffett company, all from the U.S.
Carl

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