Ocean Heat Waves and Climate Change, 2023

KAKALI DAS

Is extreme weather the New Normal?

Day after day, country after country, the world is witnessing soaring temperatures. While rainfall is breaking records, there are other areas in the world where there are forest fires that seem to be almost never ending. The spotlight however at this moment is on the world’s oceans which have hit their hottest ever recorded temperature.

According to the European Union’s Climate Change Service, the average global sea surface temperature has now beaten the record that was set back in 2016. Last week, the temperature level hit 20.96 degrees Celsius, far above the average for this time of the year.

Climate change is affecting the global rhythm of weather patterns, and experts say that oceans, usually, globally are the warmest in the month of March and not in the month of August. But what does that mean for you and I?

The oceans play a significant role in regulating climate – serving as carbon sinks, they absorb carbon dioxide. They soak up the heat and produce half of the Earth’s Oxygen and drive the weather patterns.

“It is extremely disturbing now that climate extremes are the new normal. We have too much carbon in the atmosphere from decades of burning fossil fuels. 70 per cent of the planet is ocean. Oceans are the lungs of the planet. Sometimes we think, it is the rain forest that is the lungs of the planet, but it is the oceans that are absorbing all the extra carbon. The water off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico are now as hot as a hot tub. We have got changing ocean circulation patterns, increasing ocean acidification – rapidly melting the sea ice in both of the poles – compounding potentially by the El Nino cycle which we are now entering” – Miss Sherry Goodman, Secretary General of International Military Council for climate and security, and also a senior strategist for Centre for Climate Security.

The hotter oceans and heat waves upset the marine food chain; corals also bear the brunt. Many suffer from bleaching, while some even dying due to it. Overall, this means a reduced capacity for oceans to absorb carbon emissions and thus, more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The increasing amount of heat absorbed due to the growing carbon emissions is to be blamed. Moreover, the rise in ocean temperatures have come up after a series of marine heat waves, and global warming goes well beyond the geographical boundaries.

Ocean Heat Waves and Climate Change, 2023

Climate change needs no Visa or Passport. Marine waves have been witnessed in the United Kingdom, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and also the Gulf of Mexico.

The duration intensity and the frequency of the marine heat waves is on the rise and their frequency has also doubled between 1982 and 2016. And, it’s not only the oceans but the river basins too, which are bearing the brunt of the rigorous change in climate.

As one of the United States’ most precious resources continue to dwindle, a new study confirms what researchers long feared, over a period of 21 years, the vital Colorado River Basin has lost 10 trillion gallons of water due to warming temperatures. The staggering amount is enough to kill Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir which today is dangerously depleted.

“I would say that this is a wake-up call in terms of climate change’s impact on water availability for the Colorado Basin” – a climate change activist said.

With human caused climate change, greenhouse gases pushing temperatures up, the Colorado river has seen a 10% decrease in flow, compounding existing emergency, a lack of water for the west. Snaking through seven western states, the overtaxed river provides drinking water and irrigation to 40 million people. The evaporating water supply could mean more restrictions and inflated costs for farmers passed along to the Americans across the country.

“I think it’s difficult for people to accept the fact that we just don’t have the ability to extract more water out of the system. We are going to have to reduce our use” – an activist further said.

Even after a winter of record rain, researchers say the deluge isn’t enough to reverse two decades of climbing temperatures. As the snowpack evaporates and water levels drop, the concern is rising along the Colorado. Experts believe that oceans could also be warming up due to the heat that is stored in the ocean depths coming up to the surface.

“It is extremely disturbing now that climate extremes are the new normal. We have too much carbon in the atmosphere from decades of burning fossil fuels. 70 per cent of the planet is ocean. Oceans are the lungs of the planet. Sometimes we think, it is the rain forest that is the lungs of the planet, but it is the oceans that are absorbing all the extra carbon…..

… The water off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico are now as hot as a hot tub. We have got changing ocean circulation patterns, increasing ocean acidification – rapidly melting the sea ice in both of the poles – compounding potentially by the El Nino cycle which we are now entering” – Miss Sherry Goodman, Secretary General of International Military Council for climate and security, and also a senior strategist for Centre for Climate Security.

“But, there is no doubt that humans are at the centre of this devastating change that we are now experiencing with coral reefs bleaching and dying in many parts of the planet, just changing the very way of life as we know it. Fish stocks migrating and changing as they move towards colder waters” – Miss Goodman further said.

Conclusion

What we have witnessed in the last one or two decades is an acceleration of climate risk – from an era in 10-15 years ago, when we were discussing about predicted climate change, to an era now where we are living with the heat waves, the wildfires, the sea level rise, the stronger storms on the regular basis.

The evidence is that this is going to continue to accelerate and what we need to do, as per Miss Cherry Goodman is do our very best to stay as close to that 1.5-degree temperature reduction as is possible.

We probably have already exceeded it, but we need to do everything that we can do to reduce the continued carbon loading of the oceans as well as the atmosphere. The oceans are screaming to us that it is suffering from fever, it is sick. Our climate is sick – we need to take better care of it.

Kakali Das is the Assistant Editor, Mahabahu.

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