Recent events that indicate Earth鈥檚 climate has entered uncharted territory
Jul 7, 2023, 5:47 AM | Updated: 6:26 am
(Photo from AP)
(Photo from AP)
As a warming Earth聽聽this week, scientists said the unofficial records being set for average planetary temperature were a clear sign of how pollutants released by humans are warming their environment. But the heat is also just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong, they said.
鈥淗eat sets the pace of our climate in so many ways … it鈥檚 never just the heat,鈥� said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University.
Dying coral reefs, more intense Nor鈥檈asters and the wildfire smoke that has choked much of North America this summer are among the many other signals of climate distress.
Some other recent 鈥渇irsts鈥� and events that indicate climate change has entered uncharted territory:
OCEAN WARMING
Most of the planet is covered by oceans, which have absorbed 90% of the recent warming caused by planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. In April, global ocean temperature soared to 69.98 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 degrees Celsius), which was attributed to聽. Newly published data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service documented 鈥渆xceptionally warm鈥� ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic with 鈥渆xtreme鈥� marine heat waves near Ireland, the U.K., and in the Baltic Sea.
WILDFIRE SMOKE
Several rounds of wildfire smoke originating from northern Canada brought聽聽to eastern North America. The high levels of wildfire smoke have become familiar on the West Coast, but scientists say that聽聽more likely and intense and that the East Coast will see more of it.
EL NINO ARRIVES EARLY
The current El Nino 鈥� a period of warming Pacific Ocean waters 鈥� formed a month or two聽, replacing a聽 that, with its cooling of Pacific waters, served as a damper on global temperatures. That means it will have more time than usual to strengthen. The World Meteorological Organization predicts there is a 98% chance that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record, beating 2016 when an exceptionally strong El Nino was present.
SHRINKING ANTARCTIC SEA ICE
Scientists are watching Antarctic sea ice shrink to record lows. The 4.5 million square miles (11.7 million square kilometers) covered by the sheet on June 27 was almost 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) less than average for that date for the period from 1981-2010, according to the聽
Put another way, an area nearly four times the size of Texas was gone from the ice sheet.
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Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington.
