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Also TryPapers
- -01 Methane in the Arctic and Oceans (Truth-Out.org)
"Now, researchers surveying the Arctic Ocean's seafloor are expressing even graver concerns over their findings, which include plumes of methane rising in bubbles from the sea floor."
"Moving beneath the Arctic Ocean where methane hydrates - often described as methane gas surrounded by ice - exist, a March 2010 report in Science indicated that these cumulatively contain the equivalent of 1,000 to 10,000 gigatons of carbon. Compare this total to the 240 gigatons of carbon humanity has emitted into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began." 11-14
- -01 Study: Global Warming Is Stuck on Fast Forward (theGuardian.com)
"The widespread mainstream media focus on the slowed global surface warming has led some climate scientists like Trenberth and Fasullo to investigate its causes and how much various factors have contributed to the so-called 'pause' or 'hiatus.' However, the authors note that while the increase in global temperatures has slowed, the oceans have taken up heat at a faster rate since the turn of the century. Over 90 percent of the overall extra heat goes into the oceans, with only about 2 percent heating the Earth's atmosphere. The myth of the 'pause' is based on ignoring 98 percent of global warming and focusing exclusively on the one bit that's slowed.”
"Previous estimates put the amount of heat accumulated by the world's oceans over the past decade equivalent to about 4 Hiroshima atomic bomb detonations per second, on average, but Trenberth's research puts the estimate equivalent to more than 6 detonations per second." 12-13
- -01 Study: The Cause of the Pause in Global Temperature Increase (Nature.com)
Provides evidence that cool eastern Pacific winds have cooled surface temeratures. The excess heat from global warming has been absorbed deep in oceans. "This hiatus could persist for much of the present decade if the trade wind trends continue, however rapid warming is expected to resume once the anomalous wind trends abate." 02-14
- -Warming Waters Worsen Oxygen Deprivation (CBS News)
"Global warming is likely playing a bigger role than previously thought in dead zones in oceans, lakes and rivers around the world and it's only going to get worse, according to a new study." 11-14
- Giant, Mucus-Like Blobs Form in the Oceans (NationalGeographic.com)
"As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says...." 10-09
- Global Warming Causes Release of Ocean Methane (Scientific American)
"Since time immemorial, methane and oil have seeped from beds buried beneath the ocean sediment off the California coast. The methane bubbles up and out of the sea, adding to the store of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere. The oil floats up as well and, over time, breaks down into tar that settles back into the marine sediment layer. Now new research into that tar residue seems to show that such seeps are influenced by ocean temperatures, and therefore by the very global warming they help to engender." 11-08
- Heat from Global Warming Missing (Time.com)
"Up to 2003, scientists have managed to track where heat energy flows within the planet's system and were able to effectively balance the earth's heat budget. Since then, however, satellite data has shown that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have continued to increase, which means that even more heat should be accumulating on the planet. Yet surface land temperatures haven't followed as expected; neither has the ocean's surface temperature, as measurements from thousands of Argo sensors floating on the sea indicate."
"Overall, the missing heat doesn't change expectations for future climate change, because the heat won't stay missing forever. Eventually it will resurface and impact the climate system, and the recent and deceptive reprieve from rapid warming we've enjoyed will come to an expected end." 04-10
- Hypercanes (Wikipedia.org)
"A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached around 50 °C (122 °F), 15 °C higher than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded,[1] which could in turn be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact, a large volcanic or supervolcanic eruption, or very extensive global warming.[2] There is some speculation that some dinosaurs might have been finished off by a series of hypercanes, resulting from an asteroid or comet crashing into Earth.[3] The term was coined by atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel in 1994, at MIT."
- Largest Survey of Ocean Life Is Completed (Wall Street Journal)
"The census is part of a wider push by scientists to create free, online digital libraries of biological data about life on earth. The marine data, for example, will feed into the Encyclopedia of Life project, an effort to document all 1.8 million named species on earth. There's also an International Barcode of Life project assembling DNA barcodes for all multi-cellular organisms."
"Scientists intend to use such digital libraries to study biodiversity on a planet-wide level, just as different types of meteorological data are pooled and used to predict weather. Spurring the efforts is a new field known as biodiversity informatics, which uses sophisticated computer techniques to sift and analyze data in novel ways."
"Since it began, data from the marine census has yielded some 2,700 scientific papers. One significant study published July, in the journal Nature, found a strong link between rising sea temperatures and the decline of marine algae, the basis of the oceans' food chain. Another census-based study in Nature found that warmer seas can hurt marine diversity, potentially rearranging the global distribution of ocean life." 10-10
- Ocean Levels and Ice Melting (HowStuffWorks.com)
"The main ice covered landmass is Antarctica at the South Pole, with about 90 percent of the world's ice (and 70 percent of its fresh water). Antarctica is covered with ice an average of 2,133 meters (7,000 feet) thick. If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet). But the average temperature in Antarctica is -37°C, so the ice there is in no danger of melting. In fact in most parts of the continent it never gets above freezing."
"There is a significant amount of ice covering Greenland, which would add another 7 meters (20 feet) to the oceans if it melted. Because Greenland is closer to the equator than Antarctica, the temperatures there are higher, so the ice is more likely to melt." 05-09
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