North Atlantic Ocean Hits Highest-Ever Recorded Temperatures
TRT World interviewed me about the wildfires in Canada, the climate crisis, the arrival of El Nino, reaching the threshold of 1,5 degrees Celsius, and the politics of climate denial. You can click on the YouTube link below to watch it.
One issue we didn’t discuss in the six minutes available was the shocking graph circulated in the past few days in the climate circles on social media. It shows the anomaly in sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic as compiled by NOAA.
As you can see, the data for 2023 show an extreme temperature spike as never seen before in the past 40 years (the blue and grey lines in the graph).
The North Atlantic Ocean has reached its highest-ever recorded sea surface temperature, raising concerns about the consequences for marine ecosystems, weather patterns, and global climate.
There will be a lot of debate amongst the experts about the causes of this profoundly worrying trend, but it is likely a combination of man-made and natural causes. Greenhouse gas emissions have warmed the oceans’ temperatures because about 90 percent of the energy that global warming mechanisms trap in the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. But other factors also play a role, like El Niño, which is a natural phenomenon.
This warming trend will have enormous consequences worldwide. It will disrupt weather patterns, add to further sea level rise, impact marine biology, and worsen extreme weather events. Although we didn’t discuss it in the TRT interview, it would have fitted right in.
And what I said at the end of the short interview also applies to this event: we know how to tackle the climate crisis, and we have the technology and the financial means, but we lack the political will, international solidarity, and the sense of urgency.
As a last thought before you watch the video, let me formulate it differently. Suppose you go to the hospital for some research. Then the doctor shows you this graph, with data for the past forty years of your life, and then the red line is the medical data about your body now. Independent of what the disease is, wouldn’t you be alarmed? And wouldn’t you take action?
If you find articles like this valuable and want to support my work, consider signing up to Medium. It’s $5 a month, giving you unlimited access to all my articles AND all stories on Medium. If you sign up using my link, I’ll earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
Email subscription via:
