The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. Jacques Cousteau
Behold Mark Zuckerberg where the climate science gets boned by Facebook more times than not. I am posting this tweet before the diary begins, because some of our billionaire class just just can’t seem to stop rubbing our noses in the mess that is the climate catastrophe.
Fuck him, seriously.
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a startling analysis that our planet has trapped double the heat since 2005. This staggering amount of energy will only further Earth's warming and add even more fuel to the biggest existential threat that current lifeforms in the biosphere, along with human collective memories, have ever had to face.
This is horrible news for the Arctic, Antarctica coastal cities, and even small towns like Lyttle, BC. But for the oceans, it is likely to be catastrophic.
The Geophysical Research Letters describes this phenomenon known in the science world as Earth's Energy Imbalance (EEI) thusly:
Climate is determined by how much of the sun's energy the Earth absorbs and how much energy Earth sheds through emission of thermal infrared radiation. Their sum determines whether Earth heats up or cools down. Continued increases in concentrations of well-mixed greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and the long time-scales time required for the ocean, cryosphere, and land to come to thermal equilibrium with those increases result in a net gain of energy, hence warming, on Earth.
The ocean absorbs ninety percent of this excess energy, while the cryosphere absorbs the remaining 10 percent. (The cryosphere is the planet's ice, primarily the Arctic, Antarctica, and the Himalayan mountains, a/k/a the third pole. The ramifications will be “global temperature rise, increased ocean warming, sea-level rise, and intensification of the hydrological cycle.”).
The impact of warming oceans is more powerful storms, coastal erosion from more powerful wave action, and retreat from the coast.
These factors harm mangrove and land-based coastal forests and salt marshes that protect the coasts from erosion and are nurseries for marine life.
But perhaps the most worrisome is climate change's evil twin, ocean acidification. Acidification changes seawater chemistry. NOAA writes:
In the 200-plus years since the industrial revolution began, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased due to human actions. During this time, the pH of surface ocean waters has fallen by 0.1 pH units. This might not sound like much, but the pH scale is logarithmic, so this change represents approximately a 30 percent increase in acidity.
The ocean absorbs about 30% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released in the atmosphere. As levels of atmospheric CO2 increase from human activity such as burning fossil fuels (e.g., car emissions) and changing land use (e.g., deforestation), the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean also increases. When CO2 is absorbed by seawater, a series of chemical reactions occur resulting in the increased concentration of hydrogen ions. This process has far-reaching implications for the ocean and the creatures that live there.
Ocean acidification is already impacting many ocean species, especially organisms like oysters and corals that make hard shells and skeletons by combining calcium and carbonate from seawater. However, as ocean acidification increases, available carbonate ions (CO32-) bond with excess hydrogen, resulting in fewer carbonate ions available for calcifying organisms to build and maintain their shells, skeletons, and other calcium carbonate structures. If the pH gets too low, shells and skeletons can even begin to dissolve.
The pteropod, or "sea butterfly," is a tiny sea snail about the size of a small pea. Pteropods are an important part of many food webs and eaten by organisms ranging in size from tiny krill to whales. When pteropod shells were placed in seawater with pH and carbonate levels projected for the year 2100, the shells slowly dissolved after 45 days. Researchers have already discovered severe levels of pteropod shell dissolutionoffsite link in the Southern Ocean, which encircles Antarctica.
Changes in ocean chemistry can affect the behavior of non-calcifying organisms as well. The ability of some fish, like clownfish, to detect predators is decreased in more acidic waters. Studies have shown that decreased pH levels also affect the ability of larval clown fish to locate suitable habitat. When these organisms are at risk, the entire food web may also be at risk.
While some species will be harmed by ocean acidification, algae and seagrasses may benefit from higher CO2 conditions in the ocean, as they require CO2 for photosynthesis just like plants on land. There are some ongoing studies examining if growing seaweed can help slow ocean acidification.
NOAA on plastics in the Marine Environment.
Unfortunately, once plastic debris is in the marine environment, it’s there to stay. Plastic never fully degrades, but instead breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually becoming what we call “microplastics.” Microplastics are small plastic pieces, less than 5 millimeters in size. They can come from those larger plastics breaking apart, or can be manufactured at that size, such as “microbeads” that are sometimes found as exfoliants in products such as facial scrubs or toothpastes.
Plastic debris can wreak havoc on the marine environment, with numerous negative impacts. It can harm marine animals by entangling them in debris like derelict nets or plastic 6-pack rings. Animals may accidentally ingest plastics, mistaking them for food. Plastic debris, especially large, heavy derelict fishing nets, can hurt sensitive and important habitats like coral reefs by physically damaging or smothering them. Plastics can also have direct impacts on us, by becoming navigational hazards or by polluting our beaches and driving tourists away from communities that rely on those coastal visitors.
Overfishing has improved in the United States but is a serious problem worldwide. Fertilizers from land use are creating dead zones. Sapiens can do something about both of these issues if humans cared enough and considered the lives of other species to be of value outside of themselves.
