Climate change in the ocean never stays in the ocean
The ocean has been taking the heat for unchecked climate change. This is bad news for us land dwellers.
We’ve known for years that the ocean has been taking the heat for unchecked climate change, absorbing more than 93% of the Earth’s excess heat. This is bad news for us land-dwellers because what happens in the ocean rarely stays there.
Several recent studies show just how bad it is.
Research published last week found that the Atlantic Ocean hasn’t been this hot in 2,900 years. That in and of itself is a big deal, but the climate impacts of a continuously warming ocean could be even bigger.
“[I]f the Atlantic warming continues, atmospheric conditions favoring more severe melting of Canadian Arctic ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet can be expected in the coming decades,” said climate scientist Raymond Bradley, who co-led the research, in a news release.
The Greenland ice sheet alone holds enough water to raise sea levels by 24 feet, and it’s melting at increasingly faster rates. At its current rate, the melting Greenland could put 100 million people at risk of annual coastal flooding by the end of the century.
That was the warning that Markus Rex came back with, after he returned last week from the biggest-ever Arctic science expedition. After over a year at sea, Rex warned of the region’s shaky future.
“The ice is disappearing, and if in a few decades, we have an ice-free Arctic — this will have a major impact on the climate around the world,” said Rex at a press conference.
All this melting ice creates a feedback loop. Ice reflects sunlight, keeping water cooler. But without ice on the surface, darker water is left to absorb sunlight, making the ocean even warmer and driving more ice melt.
The bottom of the ocean isn’t off the hook, either: Temperatures in the deep ocean are rising faster than previously thought, which not only shows the reach of human-caused climate change but threaten unexplored and previously untouched ecosystems.
And an ice-free Arctic isn’t our only concern. Climate change is messing with ocean currents, creating a top layer of warm ocean water that slows circulation of water that’s essential to regulating climate. These warmer waters block the absorption of carbon dioxide, while providing energy for future hurricanes.
Last month, Hurricane Delta barreled into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, becoming the only Greek-lettered storm to ever make landfall and the record 25th-named storm of the year.
Climate change has not only brought an active hurricane season but an unpredictable one, too. Hurricanes Delta and Laura both rapidly intensified in very short periods of times (Delta grew from an unnamed tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in only 36 hours), likely due to climate change. That’s a nightmare for forecasters.
“The problem is, several days out, people are tuning in, saying, ‘It’s a Cat 1, Cat 2, been through those, know what to do, not that bad,’” Craig Fugate, who formerly headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told The Washington Post. “Then it starts intensifying and the window to evacuate closes very quickly.”
Taken together, sea level rise and hurricanes remind us that climate impacts are already here. But in addition to adapting to these climate impacts, we must still do all we can to curb emissions — it’s our best hope at saving lives and preventing immeasurable suffering.