Pacific Ocean warming 15 times faster than before

[n2doc]

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY 3:55 p.m. EDT October 31, 2013

lthough the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere may have hit the "pause" button recently — with little global warming measured over the past few years — that hasn't been the case with the oceans.

In a study out today in the journal Science, researchers say that the middle depths of a part of the Pacific Ocean have warmed 15 times faster in the past 60 years than they did during the previous 10,000 years.

Most of the heat that humanity has put into the atmosphere since the 1970s from greenhouse gas emissions has likely been absorbed by the oceans, according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored group of scientists that issues reports every few years about the effects of global warming.

"Increases in ocean heat content and temperature are robust indicators of global warming during the past several decades," according to today's Science study.

"We're pumping heat into the ocean at a faster rate over the past 60 years," said study lead author Yair Rosenthal, a climate scientist at Rutgers University. "We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy," he added. "It may buy us some time — how much time, I don't really know. But it's not going to stop climate change."

more

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/10/31/global-warming-pacific-ocean/3324251/

[pscot]

1. Temps off the coast of Washington

and Vancouver Island were above 60 degrees for weeks late this summer. I don't track the numbers, but based on casual observation, that's the highest I've ever seen.

[Bill USA]

2. interesting. Oceans warming faster than previously thought, Permafrost thawing faster than

previously thought, ocean acidification - not known at what point shell forming plankton will cease being able to form their shells leading to collapse of ocean foodstocks.

Yeah, we've got plenty of time. We don't need to think in terms of taking much faster steps to mitigate AGW (forget about reining it in. THat's over. The best we can hope for is to slow it down a bit) - especially if it would bother Big Oil's profitability and revenues (just to focus on the transportation sector as it is one that we can produce someof the fastest change in - changes we can make in the power production sector will take much longer to produce as much change in GHG emissions).

Yeah, what we worry??




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