Kathy glass ocean climate change

Editor's Notes

1. Storms are becoming stronger and more frequent and are also becoming less predictable. Because of drought conditions and an increase in lightning strikes, wildfires are increasing in frequency and size.
2. This is the Keeling Curve—named for the researcher who began measuring carbon dioxide atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa in the late 1950s, Charles David Keeling. This graph shows the annual rise in the amount of atmospheric CO2 in parts per million. James Hansen, the just retired, famous climatologist of NASA, has researched global warming longer than just about anyone. He was the first to testify before Congress, in 1988, that global warming was real. He calculated, and other leading scientists agree, that 350 ppm is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. When Keeling began his research about 1958, the level was at 315 ppm. Ice cores from the Antarctic show the number held steady between 275 and 280 for millennia. In May of this year, that number hit the 400 mark.
3. The ocean is a major driver of climate change. Through regional scale upwelling and downwelling and a process called thermohaline circulation, large amounts of heat are redistributed around the planet. These changes may lead to a change in ocean circulation, as well as increased storm activity. Wind patterns over the oceans are expected to change and strengthen as the global climate changes. Wind variability is also expected to cause increases in adverse ocean conditions that may not be tolerable for many marine animals.
4. Acidosis occurs when there is a buildup of carbonic acid in body fluid. Most susceptible are the egg and larval stages. Acidosis can result in a lowered immunity, metabolic imbalance, problems with reproduction, respiratory difficulties and death.
5. The steady rise in ocean acidification caused by the conversion of excess levels of carbon dioxide into carbonic acid is increasingly worrisome. As the amount of CO2 in the ocean increases, so does the water’s acidity. Rising acidity depletes the molecules that organisms absorb in order to create their shells. Greater energy is then spent on shell production, which means they have less energy for finding food, growth, and reproduction. CO2-enriched seawater impacts calcifying marine organisms from coral to pteropods, diatoms, and echinoderms; compromises the growth, metamorphosis, and survival of larval stages of calcifying bivalves; and interferes with the formation of skeletons in many other marine organisms.
6. Zooxanthellae are the photosynthetic algae that has a mutualistic relationship with coral.
7. A .3 drop in pH level could cause sound to travel up to 70% farther.
8. Melting ice seeps through cracks and lubricates the bottom of glaciers, speeding up the rate of their melt. As pollutants from industry, wildfires, and volcanoes travel through the atmosphere on currents of air, they may darken the ice and snow, causing absorption of heat from the sun rather than reflection, which causes more melting. It has been suggested that Greenland use this type of melt as a source of hydrologic energy. I highly recommend the movie Chasing Ice by James Balog. Greenland’s ice melt in 2012 was “the largest in the satellite record since 1979, and melting lasted almost two months longer than average. This was the first year in the satellite record that the entire ice sheet experienced melt at some point in the season.” http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/2013/02/greenland-melting-2012-in-review/
9. Snow is highly reflective and will bounce back about 80-90% of the sunlight that hits it. With less reflectivity, it will absorb more heat. Over 90% of the Earth’s increased heat is absorbed by the ocean. Cold seawater has a lower pH, and, therefore, a higher acidity.
10. The warm and cold waters can’t passively mix across the thermocline, but wind, upwelling, downwelling, and storms help move the water. Mixing is critical for ecosystem productivity by bringing nutrients to the surface and oxygen to deeper waters. As water temperatures increase, the thermocline becomes a stronger barrier.
11. “Global sea level rise will have a disproportionate effect along the Gulf Coast shoreline because of its flat topography, regional land subsidence, extensive shoreline development, and vulnerability to major storms. Climate models project sea-level rise along the Gulf Coast ranging from over 8 to almost 20 inches in the next century. “ Even with only a few inches of sea-level rise, the Gulf Coast coastline will move quite far inland. This threatens houses, community infrastructure, port facilities, and ecosystems. www.ucsusa.org.assets/documents/global_warming/gulfcoast.pdf
12. REPLACE THIS SLIDE WITH 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT THE OCEAN
13. REMEMBER….