“Health to the ocean means health for us.”
Sylvia Earle, Marine Biologist
If you have school-aged children you know summer is usually the time for their annual checkups. Gotta get those immunizations updated and school health forms filled out. Summer also seems like a good time for a check-up on our oceans.
Temperature check
The first step at any visit to the doctor is a temperature check. News stories about excessive heat are coming out of the woodwork, but record-breaking ocean temps aren’t getting as much air time. Maybe they should. Our oceans are running a fever.
Running a fever
Have you been to the ocean this summer, and if so, did it feel like a bathtub? The situation is unprecedented. During a typical summer, 10% of the ocean is having a heat wave; this summer 44% of the ocean water is excessively warm.
In the US and around the world, ocean surface temperatures are smashing records. The Northern Atlantic has been off the charts. In the Florida Keys, a buoy just clocked in at 101 degrees. It could be a world record. That’s less bathtub and more hot tub.
While these heat waves might make our beach visits more fun, they create tangible problems, including:
- Danger for marine life and sea birds
- Lost income in the shellfish and fishing industry
- Coral bleaching
- Ocean current disruption
- Accelerated sea ice melting
Feedback loop
There is a feedback loop happening this summer: warm air temperatures are contributing to warmer oceans, and warmer oceans are further warming the air. This loop leads to increased sea level rise, stronger storms, and more inland flooding.
The oceans are so critical to our livelihoods and very existence that we need to understand and treat the underlying cause. Scientists are working to figure out why this summer is such an anomaly, but climate change is a major culprit. And we will keep warming until we stop burning.
What can we do?
- Encourage our business and political leaders to support the transition to renewable energy
- Consider changes at home to reduce energy use
- Talk about what’s happening to our oceans and climate change in general
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.