Global Warming in Oceans

For the first time, evidence of global warming over the ocean surfaces has been found.

Tim Barnett belongs to the San Diego-based Scripps Institution. In an address to American Association for Advancement of Science he said that a recent study had stunning findings. It showed that we have run into a serious problem. The debate is now on what needs to be done about the ill-effects of climate change. The results of the study have not been published yet.

In the study, computers analyzed temperature readings obtained over 40 years in depths of up to 700 metres. The readings were well over seven million in number.

The findings could be statistically significant and cannot be easily dismissed. It makes the threat of global warming very real, and humans are responsible.

America declined to get in to the Kyoto agreement, a protocol signed by many nations agreeing to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Dr Barnett said that the past 35 years have witnessed a huge warming of the earth and 90% of the warmth has directly gone into the oceans.

The studies are said to define a fingerprint of ocean warming. Computer simulations were used for natural variability computations. It was found that the effects were something that could not have been caused by the climate system by itself.

The global warming may have serious consequences. Glaciers of the Andes may melt faster, and in West China, leaving millions of humans without enough water.

Within 20 years, global warming will alter the levels of snow in American mountains and cause a water crisis. More than 20,000 cubic kilometers of ice have melted into the sea, causing changes in salinity and have threatened to alter ocean flows. This may lead to unpredictable consequences.

The Arctic warming could have a huge impact on polar bears, seals and walruses as they depend on ice for hunting purposes. In 1997, thousands of short-tail shearwaters perished due to a plankton bloom that masked food supply and changed water color in Bering Strait.

Sea levels can rise by nearly seven metres when the Greenland ice cap melts down. This may be a serious problem.

The increase in temperatures was 0.5 degrees C at the surface, and 0.15 degrees C at higher depths. What matters is the heat volume and not the temperature.

Dr Barnett said that if we could harness the global energy that has disappeared in the 40 year period we will be able to run California for 200,000 years.

Sources:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/chanton.html