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Earth has been trapping heat at an alarming new rate, study finds:
The amount of heat trapped by Earth's land, ocean, and atmosphere doubled over the course of just 14 years, a new study shows.
To figure out how much heat the earth was trapping, researchers looked at NASA satellite measurements that tracked how much of the Sun's energy was entering Earth's atmosphere and how much was being bounced back into space. They compared this with data from NOAA buoys that tracked ocean temperatures — which gives them an idea of how much heat is getting absorbed into the ocean.
The difference between the amount of heat absorbed by Earth, and the amount reflected back into space is called an energy imbalance. In this case, they found that from 2005 to 2019, the amount of heat absorbed by Earth was going up.
[...] The researchers think that the reason the Earth is holding on to more heat comes down to a few different factors. One is human-caused climate change. Among other problems, the more greenhouse gases we emit, the more heat they trap. It gets worse when you take into account that increasing heat also melts ice and snow. Ice and snow can help the planet reflect heat back into space — as they disappear, more heat can be absorbed by the land and oceans underneath.
There's another factor at play too — natural changes to a climate pattern called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Between 2014 and 2019, the pattern was in a 'warm phase' which caused fewer clouds to form. That also meant more heat could be absorbed by the oceans.
Journal Reference:
Norman G. Loeb, Gregory C. Johnson, Tyler J. Thorsen, et al. Satellite and Ocean Data Reveal Marked Increase in Earth's Heating Rate, Geophysical Research Letters (DOI: 10.1029/2021GL093047)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by julian on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:43PM (8 children)
There is no adaptation for humans. Life on Earth can adapt by evolving into new species. Humans cannot. It takes millions of years. And some of the outcomes of a 3+ C warmer world are feedback loops which acidify and sterilize the oceans of most multicellular life. This leads to the air becoming unbreathable. All that sea life will die, rot, and release toxic gases. 3+ C is the minimum we are expecting if we do everything we can to avert climate change. It might already be too late for mammals. Life, in general, will survive. It has been through this--and worse--before.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @04:58PM (2 children)
That is the interesting question: what is "everything we can do?"
Make COVID-22 4x as transmissible and 2x as deadly as COVID-19, maybe tailor it to be most deadly to infants and children instead of old people... see what kinds of changes we are capable of then.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:07PM (1 child)
Without any changes, at least it would decrease one of the major sources of greenhouse gases.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:18PM
You know, I'm not advocating killing off a bunch of people.
I am advocating a significant reduction in daily commuting, large communal gatherings, frequent frivolous transcontinental travel for things that could have been done in e-mail.
The peri-lockdown images of pollution reduction in major cities around the globe should be an indicator of what we are actually capable of accomplishing, if we want to.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 24 2021, @05:26PM (1 child)
Umm......pretty sure humans are alive. And everything alive evolves.
Maybe you meant to switch those? Humans can ADAPT faster than other species can EVOLVE?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:20PM
Humans are very adaptable, they're just not good at caring about the distant future. For most humans the distant future starts in 24 hours, often less.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 24 2021, @07:27PM
How so, pray tell? Are you into creationism?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_human_evolution [wikipedia.org]
With humans having discovered genetics, they now can even direct the process.
If our own subspecies of couch potatoes really proves itself as much an evolutionary dead end as we look like, we won't be missed by our more capable successors.
(Score: 1) by Taxi Dudinous on Thursday June 24 2021, @07:38PM
Actually, I think it is SOCIETY that must adapt. We will have to change behaviour. We will have to move. Humans will adapt on a physical level at the normal pace, and to some degree, as a result of lifestyle and behaviour changes.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 25 2021, @06:04AM
Take a look at the historic climate record. [wikipedia.org] The climatic cycling is clear, but the thing I'd emphasize here is the scale and rapidity. During the latest warming trend of the planet (before the one we're currently in) the planet warmed up (from low to high) from temperatures about 12 degrees (Celsius) below modern, to about 6 degrees above them. That's a total warming of 18 degrees Celsius. And this happened in a time in the thousands of years.
And if you go even further back [wikipedia.org], you'll find the planet used to be dramatically hotter. And mammals, in particular, thrived. Having the ability to self regulate our temperature quite helped in a world that was 15 degrees Celsius hotter than today. Finally, all life already "dies, rots, and release 'toxic gases'". This happens constantly on a cycle proportional to the life expectancy of any given species. Suffice to say, life will be just fine even in the edge case scenarios. And this is before we even been speaking of technology.