Climate Change and the Ocean

From http://scienceinsociety.northwestern.edu - Global Warming: A Threat to Biodiversity is a Northwestern University public outreach program to help the general public understand the reality of global warming and its impact on biodiversity. A panel of five experts discuss- in plain English- the scientific and social issues involved in the ecological aspects of global warming. (3 of 7 - Global Warming) Dr. Richard Feely discusses the broad impact of global warming on our oceans. He examines the damaging effects of retreating arctic ice, coral reef bleaching, and ocean acidification on fragile marine life ecosystems.

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[grunder20]

does it affect the ocean? i thought it only affects the farms, propagation.

[thegreeensky]

nice speech.. well said...

[werecow2003]

BTW, if you'd like to read some of the original research on the attribution stuff, send me a PM, I can give you some links to papers. They're a bit technical though.

[werecow2003]

@MrMZaccone The urban heat island effect is real and well known, but it is taken into account when calculating trends. Plus, when only stations are used that are removed from urban areas, we find the same warming trend as we do for all stations combined. But more importantly, we also measure temperatures of ocean water, we use satellite measurements, and we use a number of other proxies for the reconstruction of past temps. All give a largely consistent picture of a warming world.

[werecow2003]

(cont) Under greenhouse forcing, we should also see nights warm faster than days, whereas under solar forcing, we should see the opposite. Again, our findings are consistent with CO2 forcing, not solar.

Finally, we can determine that the CO2 in the atmosphere is ours in a number of ways. The most used is isotopic analysis; fossil fuels have a distinctive C12-C13 ratio, so if we are the ones emitting the CO2, we should see the ratio shift in accordance with predictions. This has been observed.

[werecow2003]

(cont) So that's basically a direct observation of greenhouse gas effects.

Similarly, we should see the troposhere warming while the stratosphere cools, because the radiation that normally reaches the troposphere from the ground decreases, while the solar input should stay roughly the same. If the sun is responsible for warming, however, we should see both warming up. Again, what we see is consistent with greenhouse forcing. (continued)

[werecow2003]

(cont) on the issue of attribution: we can look at how the earth is warming, not just whether it is. If the warming is due to CO2 forcing, we would expect less infrared radiation in CO2 associated bandwidths to come out of the top of the atmosphere, while we should observe more radiation in those bandwidths reflected back towards us at surface level. This is exactly what we observe (continued)

[werecow2003]

@MrMZaccone Maybe you're referring to something else in the emails than I am? Keep in mind that three different investigations found no evidence of tampering, and I'll repeat that noted climate skeptic Roy Spencer's data set agrees with that of Jones et al. Jones says some stupid things in the emails, probably written in a fit of frustration, but what matters is whether or not he actually did any of them.

[MrMZaccone]

@werecow2003 Actually, I'm unconcerned about an accusation of hiding data. What concerns me is the admission of hiding and destroying data contained in the emails. Wouldn't that be "evidence" and contrary to your claim that there isn't any? As for temperatures being higher, that's obvous. We are after all, still coming out of an "ice age". The question isn't whether it's warmer but, "why?".

[MrMZaccone]

@werecow2003 I'm curious. How do we know that the instrumental record is more reliable. I understand that the instrumental record was in question because of the increased incidence of urban vs. rural measurement over the last century. (urban measurements are obvously going to be warmer.)