GR: We can now predict that increasing storms, droughts, crop failures, and mass emigrations will create global hardships and could destroy of our civilization. We can still save ourselves, but we must stop adding and start removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere now. And, of course, if we do not rapidly reduce our population and its use of space and resources, we might not survive anyway.
Total ocean heat gain in the top 2000 meters as found in “Improved estimates of ocean heat content from 1960 to 2015. (TOA = top of atmosphere, a value indicating the net incoming radiation imbalance.)”
“. . . heat in the oceans produces many added impacts to the Earth System. As we’ve seen in Antarctica and Greenland, that heat gain has caused a number of the world’s largest ice shelves and glaciers to start melting from below — increasing concerns about the future rate of global sea level rise. The accelerating heat gain in the world’s oceans is absolutely the primary driver of the ongoing global coral bleaching event that has continued uninterrupted since 2014. More ocean heat means less oxygen — which increases the extent of ocean dead zones. And various sea creatures from starfish to mollusks to walruses to puffins have all seen habitat loss and/or loss of key food sources due to ongoing warming.
“Extra ocean heat also both reduces the ability of the ocean to absorb CO2 even as it puts stress on various carbon stores — increasing the risk that a carbon feedback response from the Earth System will emerge to further worsen the rate of global warming.
“Finally, warmer oceans can help to push hydrological events such as instances of heavy rainfall and severe drought to greater extremes.” –Robert Scribbler (Continue reading at The Oceans are Warming Faster than Previously Thought; Rate of Heat Build-up Accelerating | robertscribbler)
