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from the we-used-to-wish-for-warmer-weather dept.
Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates:
The heat in the world's oceans reached a new record level in 2019, showing "irrefutable and accelerating" heating of the planet.
The world's oceans are the clearest measure of the climate emergency because they absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuel burning, forest destruction and other human activities.
The new analysis shows the past five years are the top five warmest years recorded in the ocean and the past 10 years are also the top 10 years on record. The amount of heat being added to the oceans is equivalent to every person on the planet running 100 microwave ovens all day and all night.
[...]"We found that 2019 was not only the warmest year on record, it displayed the largest single-year increase of the entire decade, a sobering reminder that human-caused heating of our planet continues unabated," said Prof Michael Mann, at Penn State University, US, and another team member.
Journal Reference:
Cheng, L., Abraham, J., Zhu, J. et al. Ocean Temperatures Hit Record High as Rate of Heating Accelerates Adv. Atmos. Sci. (2020) 37: 137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9283-7
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:32PM
Loggers and coal miners understand the value of the environment in an abstract sense, but if you shut down their industry you just stopped their ability to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. And in most areas, their employers are the only job options available. When given the choice between 'right but homeless' and 'wrong', most people choose the first option and I can't blame them.
I'm a closet free-as-in-freedom software fanatic, and I work for a proprietary software company. I engage in the exact same kind of hypocrisy, though I think working on DRM is probably less of an immediate threat to humanity's survival than cutting forests and burning coal.
I really don't think we're going to solve these problems in a capitalist society. As long as the only employers in hundreds of locations are destroying the environment, you will find millions of voters that will invent excuses to ignore it.