Ocean News

That's because the fuel needed to crank up the AC (as well as for other uses) is getting cheaper all the time, when this is calculated in the number of minutes that the world wide average Joe has to work to obtain a liter or a gallon extracted from mineral sources, so they'll keep on burning more of it as long as they financially can afford to do so, and this is the easiest and cheapest way to get what one wants . . .

 

Don't know whether you use an air-conditioner or not, but I don't think anyone is going to accuse you of being an "average Joe or Josephine".

 

Massive Sargassum Seaweed Bloom is Choking The Caribbean — Climate Change a Likely Culprit

According to Caribbean leaders, it’s a disaster that will take at least 100,000 people and 120 million dollars to clean up. And disaster may not be the best word to describe it — for an enormous Caribbean beach and water choking bloom of sargassum algae may be a new abnormal ocean condition. Yet one more dangerous upshot of a warming world.



(Great, sulfur-stinking mats of sargassum algae are now choking the beaches and
near-shore waters of the Caribbean. In some places the mats are 10 feet deep.
These great piles of seaweed can foul beaches, kill off native species, and result in ocean
dead zones when they rob waters of nutrients and then die off — pulling life-giving
oxygen out of the water by decomposition. Image source: Mission Blue.)

 

No AC, except for the car, and occasionally using a fan, not so hot here and not for long, but I have to confess, I'm at least close to an a.J, and always exculpating for myself that my little part doesn't make that much of a difference.

But I know near 8 billion little parts make a difference, while living as an a.J. in the western world I could do more than most that are included in that total number.

P.S.​

While the Urban Dictionary says the term is unisex, but generally male, I do like the term ‘‘average Josephine’’ to make some difference, and not blaming only one half of the a.Js to be or act as such . .

 

Happening right now, Ellicott City, Maryland has a second 1000 year flood in two years...

 

Earth just had its 400th straight warmer-than-average month thanks to global warming | USA Today

It was December 1984, and President Reagan had just been elected to his second term, Dynasty was the top show on TV and Madonna's Like a Virgin topped the musical charts.

It was also the last time the Earth had a cooler-than-average month.

Last month marked the planet's 400th consecutive month with above-average temperatures, federal scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.

The cause for the streak? Unquestionably, it’s climate change, caused by humanity's burning of fossil fuels.

 

E.U. Proposes Ban on Some Plastic Items to Reduce Marine Pollution | New York Times

The European Commission on Monday proposed an ambitious set of measures to clean up Europe’s beaches and rid its seas and waterways of disposable plastics, and urged the European Union to lead the way in reducing marine litter worldwide...

“What this means in practice is that you won’t see single-use plastic cotton buds on your supermarket shelves, but ones made with more environmental friendly materials instead,” Mr. Timmermans said. “The same will go for straws, drink stirrers, sticks for balloons, cutlery and plates.”...

Taken together, the measures would also contribute significantly to the achievement of the European Union’s climate goals, avoiding about 3.4 million metric tons, or about 3.7 million tons, of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, according to the European Union...

 

This is a continuation from a post made a month or so ago. Warning, the article is rather technical.

If you doubt that the AMOC has weakened, read this | Real Climate

(AMOC == Atlantic Meridonal Overturning Circulation == The Gulf Stream is part of the AMOC)​

 

Earth may become 4 degrees warmer by 2084 | Asian Age

In a study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, researchers reported that under a scenario of no reduction in CO2 emissions, Earth's average temperature may increase by four degrees Celsius, as early as 2064 and as late as 2095 in the 21st century, with 2084 appearing as the median year.

The variability of temperature throughout one year would be lower in the tropics and higher in polar regions, while precipitation would most likely increase in the Arctic and in the Pacific.

 

A Temperature Roller Coaster Could Be Coming | NPR

New research suggests that global warming could cause temperature swings to get unusually extreme. And the regions where the biggest swings will occur are among the poorest in the world — and the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

In the tropics, soil moisture plays a big role in moderating or "buffering" temperature swings, according to Bathiany. It's kind of like the so-called Goldilocks effect — moisture keeps temperatures somewhere in between very hot and very cold. But a warming atmosphere dries out the soil. "And when you have drier conditions," says Bathiany, "then the temperature fluctuations are not buffered as much any more, so you have larger temperature variability."

Bathiany says if the planet continues to warm, temperature variability will be especially pronounced in the Amazon Basin and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia — wet places where a warming climate is drying things out.

 

Ocean plastic a 'planetary crisis' - UN
Life in the seas risks irreparable damage from a rising tide of plastic waste, the UN oceans chief has warned.

Lisa Svensson said governments, firms and individual people must act far more quickly to halt plastic pollution.

"This is a planetary crisis," she said. "In a few short decades since we discovered the convenience of plastics, we are ruining the ecosystem of the ocean."

Ocean plastic a 'planetary crisis' - UN http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42225915

 

The World Is Dangerously Lowballing The Economic Cost Of Climate Change, Study Finds | HuffPost

The findings, to be released Monday in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, say projections used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change rely on outdated models and fail to account for “tipping points” ― key moments when global warming rapidly speeds up and becomes irreversible.

The paper breaks down into three main points:

• Current projections virtually ignore a very real possibility: that events such as the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet or the faster-than-expected thawing of Arctic permafrost will act like kerosene on a bonfire. These could increase the rate of climate change astronomically.

• These forecasts are based on an average of all possible climate change scenarios, even though newer models account for the increased likelihood of more warming.

• The newer models are still largely abstract, but they also factor in how human uncertainty over climate change can potentially cause even more damage in the future.

 

Future arctic sea ice loss could dry out California | Science Daily

The dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice cover observed over the satellite era is expected to continue throughout the 21st century. Over the next few decades, the Arctic Ocean is projected to become ice-free during the summer. A new study, published in Nature Communications, shows that substantial loss of Arctic sea ice could have significant far-field effects, and is likely to impact the amount of precipitation California receives.

They found that sea ice changes can lead to convection changes over the tropical Pacific. These convection changes can in turn drive the formation of an atmospheric ridge in the North Pacific, resulting in significant drying over California.


Schematics of the teleconnection through which Arctic sea-ice changes
drive precipitation decrease over California. Arctic sea-ice loss induced high-
latitude changes first propagate into tropics, triggering tropical circulation and
convection responses. Decreased convection and decreased upper level
divergence in the tropical Pacific then drive a northward propagating Rossby
wavetrain, with anticyclonic flow forming in the North Pacific. This ridge is
responsible for steering the wet tropical air masses away from California.

 

Climate change could wipe out more than half of African birds, mammals by 2100: biodiversity report| The Hindu

Four mammoth reports that took more than 550 scientists three years to compile, warned that Asia-Pacific fish stocks could run out by 2048 and more than half of African bird and mammal species could be lost by 2100.

Up to 90% of Asia-Pacific corals will suffer “severe degradation” by 2050, said the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

“This alarming trend endangers economies, livelihoods, food security and the quality of life of people everywhere,” according to the most extensive biodiversity survey since 2005. “We’re undermining our own future well-being,” added IPBES chairman Robert Watson.

 

High-tide flooding could happen ‘every other day’ by late this century | Washington Post

Years ago, the late Margaret Davidson, a coastal programs director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warned it wouldn’t be long until high-tide flooding became routine. “Today’s flood will become tomorrow’s high tide,” she said.

A new NOAA report has published startling new projections that affirm Davidson’s warning.

By 2100, the report says, “high tide flooding will occur ‘every other day’ (182 days/year) or more often” even under an “intermediate low scenario” in coastal areas along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. This scenario works under the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions — which warm the climate and speed up sea-level rise — are curbed.

For a more aggressive “intermediate” scenario, in which greenhouse gas emissions carry on at today’s pace, high-tide flooding is forecast to occur 365 days per year.