Any reasonable person knows that climate change is caused by global warming. The earth is heating up, temperatures are rising, ice caps melting, forests burning; however, the most obvious measure of this rising heat is in our oceans. Year after year, unfathomable amounts of energy are added to our oceans. To put it in comparative terms, the amount of energy going into the ocean every second is equal to about five Hiroshima atom bombs. Scientists have devised a sophisticated mathematical system that tracks the change in ocean temperature. Specific parts of an ocean pathway are measures, and the rest is filled in using mathematical formulae - this is then calculated for an infinite number of pathways in the ocean that together make of its entire surface.
We know about the greenhouse effect and how it aids rising global temperatures. As humans - or well, human-made mechanisms - emit heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, it creates an energy imbalance. There is more heat coming into the ocean than there is going out. About 90% of this energy ends up in the oceans. The first few layers of the ocean are just as hot as the entire atmosphere of the earth combined. There’s a couple of reasons why this happens: firstly, the oceans are 280 times bigger than the atmosphere of the earth; second, water has a higher heat capacity than most other compounds, which means that it takes a massive amount of energy to break the bonds between its hydrogen and oxygen molecules; and third, the ocean is not a good reflective surface, thus allowing it to absorb most of the heat and light. Without this amazing mechanism of the oceans, the average temperature on earth would have been around 67 degrees celsius, making it impossible for most life forms to flourish.
Scientists estimate that by 2100, the average sea level would be about 3 feet higher, displacing 150 million people around the world. Warmer oceans also control the extremisation of weather - they supercharge typhoons and hurricanes and make rains more deadly. This phenomenon has also upset water ecosystems in several places, causing great damage to biodiversity. While much of this has been obvious in our newspapers and magazines, there is data to back this all up. The oceans have warmed consistently and continuously since the 1990’s - and this kind of long-term breakdown accurately represents what climate change is doing to the planet.
Comments