Ocean Warming is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds (nytimes.com)

Scientists say the warming of the world's oceans is accelerating more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change given that almost all of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases ends up stored there. From a report: A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. The researchers also concluded that ocean temperatures have broken records for several straight years. "2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth's oceans," said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at the independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. "As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year." As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer, slowing the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by human greenhouse gas emissions. But the escalating water temperatures are already killing off marine ecosystems, raising sea levels and making hurricanes more destructive.

Comments

Bipolar

[ArhcAngel]

Wasn't there a story here yesterday saying the oceans were getting colder?

Re:Bipolar

[Luckyo]

Do you even realise how dumb it is to claim that "model is correct" and then literally follow it up with "model was incorrect"? Because if it's warming faster or slower than model predicted, MODEL IS WRONG. Direction is irrelevant in this regard. Model's point is to predict the outcome. If outcome falls OUTSIDE the model, model is WRONG.

Re:Bipolar

[Archangel Michael]

Science says some of the water is warming, some of it is cooling. That is all science says.It suggests causes, but can't prove them. Models suggesting particular warming/cooling trends don't support measured reading in any reliable way. Models are constantly adjusted for differences between predicted and actual numbers is evidence that the models are in fact not accurate enough to make ANY long term predictions.

Further, models predicting weather and climate changes based on the models has been proven even more elusive. Hurricanes were supposed to be more and worse a long long time ago haven't panned out. The Greening of Africa was not predicted at all. Major failures like these cause skepticism about reliability of predictive models. But we are supposed to drop everything because chicken little is claiming the sky is falling.

Science that has wrong, missing data, can't fulfill is predictive modeling isn't really science. Newtonian physics is wrong. However, Newtonian Physics is accurate enough that we still can use it because it is accurate enough. "The polar ice caps will be gone by 2015" isn't science. Isn't accurate. Isn't even close. AND yet we're supposed to believe it still, because it "might" happen, eventually ... maybe.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/j...

People shocked energy has to go somewhere

[WillAffleckUW]

It's either showing up in floods, storms, and the like, or it's getting stored somewhere, sunshine.

Science doesn't care about your denial.

Enjoy coastal flooding and more severe weather patterns!

Re:Don't care. No one really does.

[Oswald McWeany]

Really, no one cares. It's a worry for worriers.

Nothing can be done about it anyway, at least within the bounds of the politically possible

That comment reminds me of the scene in Austin Powers where the steam roller ever so slowly moves towards a man who is screaming in terror rooted in spot instead of running away, despite having plenty of time.

It's not like we haven't known about Global Warming for decades now, but we haven't shifted policy an inch. There are things we can be doing, but we're like that man waving his arms around screaming as 1mph steam roller slowly inches towards him.