Nate Kim

AP Bio, Mr. Ippolito

Current Event 11

1/14/21

Lambert, Jonathan, Susan Milius, Carolyn Gramling, Bruce Bower, Aimee Cunningham, Tina
Hesman Saey, Betsy Mason, Maria Temming, Lisa Grossman, Cassie Martin, Emily
Conover, Bethany Brookshire, et al. “Earth’s Oceans Are Storing Record-Breaking
Amounts of Heat.” Sciencenews.org. N.p., 13 Jan. 2021. Web. 14 Jan. 2021.

In a recent study, researchers found that our oceans absorbed 234 sextillion joules more heat energy in 2020 than the annual average from 1981 to 2010. To put that data point into perspective, Earth’s oceans absorbed about enough heat to boil 1.3 billion kettles of water. Climate scientist Kevin Trenberth informs that tracking ocean temperature is important because warmer water melts more ice off the edges of Greenland and Antarctica, which raises sea levels and supercharges tropical storms. To estimate the total heat energy stored in the upper 2,000 meters of Earth’s oceans, the team of researchers used temperature data from moored sensors, Argo floats, underwater robots and other temperature recording equipment. In an effort to be accurate, a conservative estimate placed the absorbed heat energy at 1 sextillion joules. That’s still 65 million kettles brought to boil, but it’s nowhere near 1.3 billion. Michael Mann, a coauthor of the study, warns that the warmest years on record for the world’s oceans were 2017, 2018 and 2019. If we do not dramatically reduce carbon emissions soon, Mann warns, we won’t have a happy ending. 

The implications of this article are astronomical. The melting of ice is a positive feedback cycle, meaning that the results of one cycle exacerbate the results of the next cycle. Water has an extremely low albedo, meaning that it doesn’t reflect that much sunlight. Ice on the other hand has an albedo anywhere from 10 to 12 times as high. As the oceans absorb more heat, more ice melts meaning that more of Earth’s surface is water instead of ice. When more surface area is water, more heat energy is absorbed by the oceans melting more ice. This cycle continues forever. From the data, we can see that oceans are absorbing more heat energy every year. Combined with the ice-albedo positive feedback cycle, the negative repercussions grow exponentially. In order to remedy this, we must cut down our carbon emissions in order to preserve more ice before it is too late. 

This article was a wakeup call for me. As a sophomore, I took Environmental Science and loved it. I haven’t really kept up to date with recent climate news so this article was a shocker for me. Back in 2018, the trend wasn’t that bad yet. There had only been high temperatures for 2 years in a row. Now, with 4 of the warmest years on record in just 5 years, it is extremely concerning. As an uninformed reader, I wish that the authors of the article described what some of the more technical terms meant. I am not sure what argo floats or under robots do in order to record temperatures. If the author put these terms in layman's terms, the article would be more accessible to a greater demographic. The article has great strengths in its ability to hit home and properly show the direness of the news it presents. The comparison of temperature to kettles brought to boil places an image in the reader's head, giving them a better understanding of how drastic the situation at hand is.