Climate Change Explanation is proposed for extra heat in the oceans.
The Arctic has experienced the warming effects of global climate change faster than any other region on the planet. Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have developed a new theory aided by computer simulations and observations that helps explain why this occurs. Climate Change Is Causing Europe’s Largest Glacier Mass to Rapidly Melt | Inside Edition
Ocean warmth sets record high in 2021 due to greenhouse gas emissions.
A team led by Scripps researcher Emma Beer observed the changes taking place in the Arctic Ocean, which is largely covered by sea ice for most of the year. There, an unusual situation exists where the water is warm at depth and cold near the surface.
The deeper waters are fed by the relatively warm Pacific and Atlantic oceans, whereas the near-surface waters are in contact with sea ice and remain close to the freezing point.
Heat flows upward from the warmer water to the colder water.
2021 finished in top 5 hottest years on record (msn.com)
The scientists found that the deeper water is getting warmer as a result of climate change, but the near-surface water below the sea ice remains close to the freezing point. The increasing difference in temperature leads to a greater upward flow of heat. Beer, Scripps climate scientist Ian Eisenman, and researcher Till Wagner of the University of North Carolina estimate that this phenomenon is responsible for about 20% of the amplification of global warming that occurs in the Arctic.
“While previous work has found mechanisms related to the surface and the atmosphere that cause Arctic amplification, our finding is that there is also a fundamental reason why the ocean causes polar amplification when the polar region is covered with sea ice,” Eisenman said of the National Science Foundation-supported study.
The results are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Reference: “Polar Amplification Due to Enhanced Heat Flux Across the Halocline” by
E. Beer, I. Eisenman and T. J. W. Wagner, 3 February 2020, Geophysical Research Letters. DOI: 10.1029/2019GL086706
Why Can You See the Moon During the Day? We Asked a NASA Scientist.
We think of the Moon as a nighttime object because it’s often shown that way to us
in books and movies. Even the weatherman uses the Sun as a symbol for day and the Moon for night. But the Moon actually spends almost as much time in the daytime
sky as the night. You just have to look a little harder to see it.
Let’s think about why we can see the Moon at night at all. Unlike our Sun, the Moon doesn’t create its own light. We can only see it because light from the Sun is reflecting
off of its surface.
The same is true during the day, and unlike the stars which are also still up there during the day, but we can’t see them because the sky is too bright, the Moon actually shines bright enough that you can see it day or night as long as it’s in the right part of the sky.
During a full Moon, the Moon is opposite the Sun in the sky.
That’s why we can see the full face of the Moon reflecting sunlight.
As the Earth rotates, the Moon rises just as the Sun sets, but just on that one day of
the month. In the days before a full Moon, if you look in the eastern sky, you can find
the almost full Moon rising before the sun sets. And the days after a full Moon, you
can look in the western sky and find the Moon setting after the Sun has come up.
Over the last year, I’ve actually made a game of timing my daily bike ride to see if I can spot it in the daytime sky. But it will keep you on your toes. It sets about 50 minutes later each day as it marches through its phases. So, keep your eyes peeled and keep looking up. Maybe you can spot it, too.
Why Global Warming Hits the Arctic Harder Than Anywhere Else.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Climate Change Doc ‘Before the Flood’ Was Preaching to the Choir. It’s a familiar trope: the celebrity with a conscience who takes it upon themself to bear witness to the tragedies of the world and report back to us via an earnest, whose overtly sentimental documentary and call to action. And while some manage to transcend this stigma, more often than not the final product is factually lopsided, marred by vanity,
or simply not vital.
Basically, such films have made this writer a skeptic of celebrity-fronted activism-
oriented films. Which, for the most part, is exactly what Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary, “Before the Flood” is a globe hopping effort to sound the climate
change alarm.
The only problem is — unless you’ve been hiding out in a Cold War-era bunker,
you already know about climate change, and you’ve gone ahead and picked a side.
This out of touch sensation is certainly the largest issue that plagues “Before the Flood.” Much of the film takes place before the Paris Agreement, which in light of its ratification and its hot button status on the campaign trail, already feels like old news. But really it simply feels like a film working to make us believe that climate change is happening. DiCaprio hops onto helicopters to fly over oil sands, ice caps, and Indonesian jungles, he walks deserted islands, measures Greenland’s ice melt, and hangs out with endangered species, all while in a state of continual shock at the already extreme impact of global warming. Which is not to say he’s a phony or that his film is gimmicky, rather that such a world-renowned celebrity is not always the best cipher to establish relatability, let alone credibility.
The structure of “Before the Flood” is rather straightforward.
The film primarily comes from DiCaprio’s perspective, and as such opens with
him recounting a painting that once hung over his crib that conveniently serves as a metaphor for human-caused climate change. From there the film sets out with DiCaprio, newly anointed as the United Nations Messenger of Peace for climate change, as he attempts to see the impact it has had firsthand.
And, on the off chance that someone had managed to miss every documentary or TV special about global warming or carbon emissions, the first third of “Before the Flood” could be as enlightening as it is competently crafted. Despite the desire to want to be annoyed with DiCaprio for his heart-on-sleeve approach, he is a humble, thoughtful,
and educated guide who is genuinely more interested in hearing what the experts he
has collected have to say than simply relating facts himself.
Essentially, the film, as directed by Oscar winner Fisher Stevens (“The Cove”), is a well-crafted, well-intentioned attempt to highlight a dire problem that all of its viewers will already understand. It will, more or less, wind up preaching to the choir and change no minds at all. In part, that’s because where “Before the Flood” stumbles are exactly where it could have transcended into something relevant.
Early on DiCaprio notes that the film will offer up ideas for how individuals can help on a day-to-day basis but save for a few minor notes about substituting chicken for beef and avoiding products that use palm oil, “Before the Flood” drops the ball. How much water is in Earth’s atmosphere? (microsoftnewskids.com)
Enric Sala and Leonardo DiCaprio explore the Arctic in the new film Before the Flood.
And frankly there isn’t even much new information to help separate the film from
the pantheon of the genre. Really, it’s DiCaprio and the access afforded by his fame
that seem to be the only driving forces. But then again, how much fault should a film
bear for attempting to continue the conversation, as circular as it may now be,
in order to hopefully shake apathetic Americans from their languid stupor.
Climate change is an urgent issue (if you don’t think so, you probably aren’t reading
this review, let alone watching this bleeding-heart of a movie) and something needs to
be done about it. “Before The Flood” doesn’t offer up many solutions — though Elon Musk is eternally and brilliantly optimistic as usual — but does succeed in putting the burden on us: dutiful consumers, Americans, America. If real change is going to happen, it’s got to start here. [C+]
In his new documentary, Before the Flood, Leonardo DiCaprio takes viewers on an eye-opening tour of how climate change is affecting the planet’s oceans right now, from rising seas threatening Miami to the perilously melting Arctic. Explorer and marine biologist Enric Sala talks about Leonardo DiCaprio’s new documentary, Before the Flood.
One of the experts DiCaprio meets in the film is Enric Sala, a marine biologist and National Geographic explorer-in-residence. Sala is working to study, document, and protect some of the most biologically important areas of the ocean through Pristine Seas project.
We spoke with Sala about his work and role in the new film.
In Before the Flood, you take DiCaprio to the tip of Canada’s Baffin Island in the far Arctic. There, you warn that by 2040 the Arctic will have no sea ice left. Can you tell us what that will mean for the environment and for us?
The melting of the sea ice has consequences on all levels, from local to global.
Locally, all the animals that live up there have evolved to live with the sea ice, so its disappearance will have major effects through the entire food web.
For example, there are certain algae that need to live under the ice.
Those organisms are an important food source for little shrimplike creatures called amphipods. Those organisms, in turn, are eaten by Arctic cod, which are eaten by seals, which are eaten by polar bears. There are projections that the polar bear population is going to crash as the ice keeps melting. Already in the Beaufort Sea, we have seen a 30 percent decline in the polar bear population.
Melting sea ice also sets up a feedback loop. Ice reflects a lot of the sun’s energy back up toward space, while open water absorbs more of that heat. So, the less ice and the more water, the more the planet warms. (Read about the astronaut who is using his final days
to fight for climate change awareness.)
Enric Sala during an expedition to the Russian Arctic in 2013
PHOTOGRAPH BY CORY RICHARDS, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
You also said the Arctic is like the air-conditioning of the Northern Hemisphere,
affecting weather patterns, currents, and disasters like droughts and floods.
Can you explain how this works?
A warming Arctic is going to affect our planet’s systems of ocean currents and wind patterns, which help drive a lot of our weather. Now, there is a giant conveyor belt in which cold water that forms near the edge of sea ice sinks, only to be replaced by warmer water from the south. This process makes the British Isles comfortable to live in — for example, instead of frigid. But this whole conveyor system is in danger of disruption as
the poles warm.
As the Arctic warms, it may also impact air currents, such as the jet stream, which drives a lot of weather in North America by blocking or shuttling cold air. In the film you call the warming of the Arctic “the most dramatic transformation of a large environment ever.” Can you explain why this part of the world is so susceptible to climate change?
The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the average for the rest of the planet. It’s ironic, because the carbon emissions that are warming the planet are not produced in the Arctic, yet the Arctic is suffering the most. At the same time, what happens there is going to affect the rest of the planet.
Part of the problem is that at lower latitudes you often have more mixing of air and water, but the Arctic is more isolated at the top of the world. Also, warming of one or two degrees there has a bigger impact than other places because that’s enough to melt a huge amount of ice. That leads to dramatic changes in the landscape and sets up that feedback loop that leads to even more warming.
As the planet warms, species in temperate zones have been migrating northward.
But Arctic species have nowhere to go. That’s a problem of living at the top of the world.
In Before the Flood, we also meet local guide Jake Awa of Pond Inlet, who says the ice around his home used to be thick and solid, but now it is often the consistency of ice cream. Awa relies on hunting polar bears and other Arctic animals for much of his livelihood. How are indigenous people affected by climate change?
A warming Arctic is going to impact the people who live up there.
The animals they depend on, such as seals and polar bears, are going to decline,
so they are going to have a hard time preserving their hunting traditions.
Beyond the Arctic, the rest of the world’s ocean is also under threat from a changing climate, right? How serious is the problem?
For the past 40 years or so, the Earth has absorbed more heat from the sun than it has reflected away, and about 90 percent of that has been stored in the ocean. That means
if the ocean wasn’t there, the lower parts of the atmosphere—where we live—would be
36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer! Earth would be like Venus: uninhabitable. Bye-bye economy, bye-bye human race.
The ocean absorbs a quarter of the carbon dioxide we put in the atmosphere every year. Unfortunately, all that heat is raising the temperature of the ocean, which is killing corals. That leads to the decline of the fish and other organisms that depend on corals.
And all that carbon dioxide dissolving in the ocean is making the water more acidic.
That makes it hard for corals, oysters, and other animals to make their shells.
So that puts the entire food web at risk.
How does your work leading the Pristine Seas project—which is helping save
the ocean’s natural treasures—also help us address global warming?
The 2 Degrees Institute: By protecting huge chunks of the ocean from all other human impacts, such as fishing, mining, and oil exploration, we make these places stronger, healthier, and more able to adapt to warming events.
As an analogy, if you get the Zika virus, you are more likely to survive if you were otherwise healthy than if you already had other health problems.
So, we are trying to help make the marine environment healthier and more resilient.
We’re buying time while countries figure out how to keep warming at less than 2° Celsius, which is what we need to do to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
What else needs to happen to better safeguard our future from a changing climate?
There is really only one solution to climate change: to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions. Everything else, such as reforesting, capturing carbon dioxide, et cetera,
are really mechanisms to achieve that goal.
At the same time, we need to develop clean, renewable energy technologies.
Several countries have shown this is feasible and great for the economy.
Denmark has slashed its use of fossil fuels and will soon use none, yet their gross domestic product has gone up. And they were named the happiest country on the planet by the United Nations. Other countries are on their way, such as Germany and Norway.
Those who want to polarize us between either economic growth with pollution or economic stagnation with sustainability is wrong.
(Learn about how carbon taxes may play a role.)
What do you think are the most important things ordinary people can do to address
these big problems? There are so many things’ people can do.
But if it were one thing, I’d say eat more vegetables and less meat. One of the biggest ecological footprints is our meat consumption. To raise cattle, forests are being cut down, especially in the developing world, and that creates a huge amount of emissions.
Cattle also release methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas.
I rarely eat meat (beef), and I have never felt better.
When you introduce DiCaprio to the narwhals off Baffin Island in the film,
and he hears their unique, purrlike sounds, viewers can really see the pure joy on his face.
How important do you think it is that everyone experience such joy from nature?
We only protect what we love. There is nobody who goes out into nature and experiences something extraordinary like that and doesn’t feel a sense of awe and wonder.
Being in nature brings back the kid in us, that sense of wonder and curiosity.
It’s also good for our health and minds. People should spend more time outside.
For those who can’t go to pristine places, we try to share that experience through our National Geographic films and media. Still, nothing beats firsthand experience.
Before the Flood Full Movie National Geographic – Bing video
What main message do you hope people take away from this documentary?
This film comes at a very important moment. The world is not debating whether
climate change exists, except for a few fringe outliers.
World leaders came together in Paris last winter and agreed to reduce emissions so
that global temperature does not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels, in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.
In my opinion, one of the biggest values of the film is the strong sense of urgency.
We have to act now.
And for those of us in the U.S., the film comes right before an important election.
People should ask themselves, who do we want for a leader on this issue?
What was the experience of working on the film Before the Flood like?
It was really fun to have Leo and [director] Fisher [Stevens] up there on the ice with us.
It was wonderful to get to share the outstanding beauty of the Arctic. It was also a great privilege to add one more voice to the film, to show people what’s going on.
It’s also a responsibility as a scientist to remind people what’s at stake.
The past 7 years have been Earth’s hottest on record & there’s no signs of ‘slowing down’
New Reason Why Arctic Is Warming So Fast Found by Scientists:
Flawed Climate Models? Arctic Ocean Started Getting Warmer Decades Earlier Than We Thought
Mike ONeill, SciTechDaily, 2021
Ancient Driftwood Tracks 500 Years of Arctic Warming, Currents, and Sea Ice
Mike O’Neill, SciTechDaily, 2021
New Technology Shows Climate Change Is Making One of the World’s Strongest Currents Flow Faster
University of California – San Diego, SciTechDaily, 2021
Five Fascinating Facts to Help You Understand Sea Ice
Mike ONeill, SciTechDaily, 2021
Rainfall in Arctic Will Soon Be More Common Than Snowfall –
Decades Earlier Than Thought
Mike ONeill, SciTechDaily, 2021
Lindsey Graham says the Democratic agenda has led the US
to ‘the most dangerous times since the late ’30s’ (msn.com)
The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the rest of Earth,
according to scientists. Roxana Saberi reports.
World Climate Scientists Issue Stark Report
The ‘heat bombs’ destroying Arctic Sea ice
by Bangor University, Phys.org, 2021
Researchers find new reason Arctic is warming so fast
Phys.org, 2020
Arctic ice loss not a big culprit in harsh winters
Paul Voosen, Science, 2021
Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Options
ReachMD
Estimation of Oceanic Heat Flux Under Sea Ice in the Arctic Ocean
Long Lin et al., Journal of Ocean University of China, 2019.
9 must-see stargazing events to watch in 2022 (nationalgeographic.com)
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