The more CO2 absorbed by the oceans, the more acidic they become, and the more acidic they become the less capable of taking up excess atmospheric carbon. A new study appearing in the November 19 issue of the journal Nature reveals this phenomenon.
Former models attributed the decline in absorption due to “the depletion of ozone in the stratosphere and global warming-induced shifts in winds and ocean circulation.
The article in Science Daily reported: “The researchers estimate that the oceans last year took up a record 2.3 billion tons of CO2 produced from burning of fossil fuels. But with overall emissions growing rapidly, the proportion of fossil-fuel emissions absorbed by the oceans since 2000 may have declined by as much as 10%.” This is the first time scientists have actually measured the change.
The study was pretty extensive. The article said it reconstructed the annual accumulation of industrial carbon from 1765 to 2008. As expected carbon uptake by the world’s oceans rose sharply trying to keep pace in the 50’s. By 2,000 carbon emissions reached “such a pitch that the ocean’s ability to absorb it declined even though the oceans absorb more each year in absolute tonnage. Today, the oceans hold about 150 billion tons of industrial carbon, the researchers estimate–a third more than in the mid-1990s.”
Of all the oceans, the Southern Ocean around Antarctica is most important. Carbon dioxide dissolves more readily in cold, dense seawater than in warmer waters. About 40 percent of carbon emissions enter the oceans through the Southern Ocean. As oceans warm up, and acidify, they become less capable of absorbing carbon dioxide.
Bottom line as stated by the study’s lead author, Samar Khatiwala: “Natural mechanisms cannot be depended upon to mitigate increasing human-produced emissions. “What our ocean study and other recent land studies suggest is that we cannot count on these sinks operating in the future as they have in the past, and keep on subsidizing our ever-growing appetite for fossil fuels.”
Amen, and add to that the world’s overtaxed and disappearing rainforests, and previously frozen Arctic carbon sinks.
Read the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091118143211.htm.
Tags: Southern Ocean
Hey there,
Try this…….And this is from YOUR side!!!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html
This one, if true, would not be a suprise to me but I am sure it would be to you.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-hackers-leaked-emails
Here you go Matt. One of your arguments is that data for climate change doesn’t go back far enough to come to any conclusions, yet you send new skeptic evidence like this about hackers—”The emails refer largely to work on so-called paleoclimate data – reconstructing past climate scenarios using data such as ice cores and tree rings.” So what’s your point? The hacked emails were about things I blog about nothing you believe in or accept anyway.
And the article in Der Spiegel isn’t all that surprising. Again, and again, skeptics are warned not to place too much significance on a ten year pattern of anything vs thousands of years if there is a global pattern of cooling and their isn’t. The Arctic is undeniably warming more than anywhere else and yes Antarctica is cooling because of the ozone layer right now but not for long.
Stick to scientific websites that report continuously about the latest in global news about climate change like Science Daily and Environmental News Service. They are from my side of sources and concur with you that there are fluctuations of weather all over the globe that do not necessarily equate to warming but they also offer reasons as to why it may be happening. I wrote a blog long ago called Global Cooling is Global Warming that covered one of the reasons. Climate change is happening. Water levels are rising for close to half of a million people in the Maldives and Kiribati and areas around Bangledesh are sinking so much so Tigers are being driven from their natural habitat into city streets. What about skeptics claims that water levels aren’t rising? Tell those half million people being affected by it. Where are they going? It won’t be temporary. They’ll need a homeland eventually.
I listened to you skeptics all summer long because Michigan’s summer was cooler than usual this year. Well, explain this balmy November then. I could use it to say global warming is here but one season means nothing, nor does a few years of stagnation if that’s the case at all. I’m reading about widespread abnormal weather everywhere.
Read Science Daily about some reasons for cooling:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090619125905.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090915113534.htm
Read my blog tonight about Great Britain flooding and then read this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0109-global_warming_causes_severe_storms.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0109-global_warming_causes_severe_storms.htm
Ria,
The earth is ALIVE. There is constant change. There always was, is and will be. The only difference you and I have is you think it’s man made and some how we can stop it. I say is natural, it’s not man made. You also think is bad and I think its neither good or bad, it is what it is. If the great lakes were created by ice forming and then melting then that proves the weather cooled and then warmed. Man had nothing to do with that, correct? I don’t need science to tell me any more about that event then that it happened. It warmed then cooled without us humans doing anything.
Its really that simple.
He are a few more links for you. This is going to come front and center very soon and its not going to be pretty for your side.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2188feb3-802a-23ad-4de4-3fbc0a92e126&Issue_id
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/24/hiding-evidence-of-global-cooling/
Keep ignoring the fact that the earth is also natural. And it has never been occupied by nearly 7 billion people putting the most unnatural things into the air, earth, and water, while cutting down, killing, burning, and in some way or form decimating much of what is “ALIVE.” To think we can do that and all will be well is dangerous.
its your side playing games with the numbers. why the hookie pokie?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6679082/Climate-change-this-is-the-worst-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation.html
also more humans are on the earth but less animales? we all produce co2 just by breathing. im still waiting for the left to demand we build nuke plants. the best single answer to reducing emmisions. right or wrong?