World's Oceans Are More Stable And That's 'Very Bad News': What It Means For Climate Change

Climate change is severely straining the world's oceans and it is dangerous.

An international team of climate scientists published a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change showing that human-caused global heating is making the world's oceans more "stable". Simply put, co-author Michale Mann explained that a rare calm moment during a historically wild Atlantic hurricane season is "very bad news".

Reuters

"Oceans becoming more stable, faster than thought"

Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State, detailed researchers' findings about ocean stratification in a piece for Newsweek. Using "more comprehensive data", the scientists found that "oceans are not only becoming more stable, but are doing so faster than was previously thought."

"Climate change is creating a significantly more stratified ocean, new study finds" | Press release on our new @NatureClimate Change study via @NCAR_Science: https://t.co/YvP1Fvh6e0 pic.twitter.com/dIUj5q4l2u

¡ª Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) September 28, 2020 " target="_blank">

"Climate change is creating a significantly more stratified ocean, new study finds" | Press release on our new @NatureClimate Change study via @NCAR_Science: https://t.co/YvP1Fvh6e0 pic.twitter.com/dIUj5q4l2u

¡ª Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) September 28, 2020

The scientists warn that new findings have "profound and troubling" implications even as we continue to burn fossil fuels, increasing surface temperatures and reducing the carbon they can absorb.

Reuters

For decades, the oceans have served as a crucial buffer against global warming, soaking up roughly a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans emit from power plants, factories and cars, and absorbing more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped on Earth by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Without that protection, the land would be heating much more rapidly.

Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions crucial

But the oceans themselves are becoming hotter, more acidic and less oxygen-rich as a result, according to the report. If humans keep pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at an increasing rate, marine ecosystems already facing threats from seaborne plastic waste, unsustainable fishing practices and other man-made stresses will be further strained.

The report concludes that the world¡¯s oceans and ice sheets are under such severe stress that the fallout could prove difficult for humans to contain without steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Fish populations are already declining in many regions as warming waters throw marine ecosystems into disarray, according to the report.

Representational Image/CoastMonkey

Hotter ocean temperatures, combined with rising sea levels, further imperil coastal regions, the report says, worsening a phenomenon that is already contributing to storms like Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Houston two years ago.

Marine heat wave can kill fish

But some of the report¡¯s starkest warnings concern the ocean, where major shifts are already underway.

The frequency of marine heat waves ¡ª which can kill fish, seabirds, coral reefs and seagrasses ¡ª has doubled since the 1980s. Many fish populations are migrating far from their usual locations to find cooler waters, and local fishing industries are often struggling to keep up. Floating sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is declining at rates that are ¡°likely unprecedented for at least 1,000 years,¡± the report said.

Daniella Zalcman¡ªGreenpeace

80,000 fall sick due to warm water bacteria each year

The report notes that some pathogens are proliferating in warmer waters, including vibrio, a bacteria that can infect oysters and other shellfish, and that already make some 80,000 Americans fall sick, who eat raw or undercooked seafood each year. ¡°That¡¯s a good example of how changes in the ocean can affect even people who live far from the coasts,¡± said Sherilee Harper, another author of the report.

Ending his piece on a similar note, Mann wrote that "in short, it's unwise to be complacent given the accumulating scientific evidence that climate change and its impacts may well be in the upper end of the range that climate scientists currently project. There is ever-greater urgency when it comes to acting on climate. But there is agency as well. Our actions make a difference¡ªsomething to keep in mind as we head into a presidential election whose climate implications are monumental."