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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: 1) by Taxi Dudinous on Thursday June 24 2021, @08:55PM
I do like that cartoon, and it clearly shows the result of humans piling on to an already existing rise in global temperatures. After all, the title clearly states "SINCE THE LAST ICE AGE GLACIATION". We are emerging from an ice age and moving toward a hot box period. The best data I have seen shows that the earth has been in hot box for about 75% of its existence. During those periods, there was little to no ice at the poles.
It is all too popular to show a very short timeline to highlight humanities contribution to climate change.
https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/9/graphic-earths-temperature-record/ [nasa.gov]
Note that the graph only goes back 140 years. And humans have certainly contributed massively to the rise. The upward trend I refer to goes back tens of thousands of years, This is a part of a cycle that has existed since long before we had any influence on the planet. (I am not saying we are not making things worse.)
Modern humans have only existed on this planet during cooler times. It's what we know. It's what we like. We don't want to be inconvenienced by climate change. But the truth is nature is all about change. We do not get to pick and choose the rules of nature that we have to follow. And nature is not kind to the rule breakers. If we stop climate change, I am sure we will unwittingly start something else. No one can confidently say that disrupting a natural cycle will not have unforeseen detrimental effects. Don't be too quick to whip out some science and unleash it on the whole planet.
Oh wait.
Already too late.
Okay, so just keep that science under control. snort! Yeah, like that'll happen!
Oh screw it!
SAVE THE PLANET!
DESTROY ALL HUMANS!