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A14 technology
Friday 14 January 2022

Temperatures in the upper ocean are at Nigeria lifts its ban on

record levels, with major consequences Twitter after 7 months

Kevin Trenberth University man activities, particularly In what ways does extra By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press
of Auckland burning fossil fuels. Because ocean heat affect air tem- ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The Nigerian government has
(THE CONVERSATION) The water holds more heat perature and moisture on lifted its ban on Twitter, seven months after the West
world witnessed record- than land does and the land? African country's more than 200 million people were
breaking climate and volumes involved are im- The global heating increas- shut out of the social media network.
weather disasters in 2021, mense, the upper oceans es evaporation and drying Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari directed that
from destructive flash are a primary memory of on land, as well as raising Twitter's operations can resume on Thursday, accord-
floods that swept through global warming. I explain temperatures, increas- ing to the director-general of the country's National
mountain towns in Europe this in more detail in my ing risk of heat waves and Information Technology Development Agency. Ka-
and inundated subway sys- new book "The Changing wildfires. We've seen the shifu Inuwa Abdullahi said that was only after Twitter
tems in China and the U.S., Flow of Energy Through the impact in 2021, especially agreed to meet some conditions, including opening
to heat waves and wildfires. Climate System." in western North America, an office in Nigeria.
Typhoon Rai killed over 400 Our study provided the first but also amid heat waves Nigeria suspended Twitter's operation on June 4, cit-
people in the Philippines; analysis of 2021's ocean in Russia, Greece, Italy and ing "the persistent use of the platform for activities
Hurricane Ida caused an warming, and we were Turkey. that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate
estimated US$74 billion in able to attribute the warm- 2021 saw several destruc- existence." The action triggered criticisms as it came
damage in the U.S. ing to human activities. tive cyclones, including shortly after the social media network deleted a post
Globally, it was the sixth Global warming is alive Hurricane Ida in the U.S. by Buhari in which he threatened to treat separatists
hottest year on record for and well, unfortunately. and Typhoon Rai in the Phil- "in the language they will understand."
surface temperatures, ac- The global mean surface ippines. How does ocean This week's action "is a deliberate attempt to reca-
cording to data released temperature was the fifth or temperature affect storms librate our relationship with Twitter to achieve the
by NASA and the National sixth warmest on record in like those? maximum mutual benefits for our nation without jeop-
Oceanic and Atmospheric 2021 (the record depends Warmer oceans provide ardizing the justified interests of the company. Our
Administration in their an- on the dataset used), in extra moisture to the at- engagement has been very respectful, cordial, and
nual global climate report part, because of the year- mosphere. That extra mois- successful," Abdullahi said in a statement.
on Jan. 13, 2022. But under long La Niña conditions, ture fuels storms, especially A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately re-
the surface, ocean tem- in which cool conditions hurricanes. The result can spond to a request for comment.
peratures set new heat re- in the tropical Pacific in- be prodigious rainfall, as In addition to registering in Nigeria during the first quar-
cords in 2021. fluence weather patterns the U.S. saw from Ida, and ter of 2022, Abdullahi said Twitter has also agreed to
As climate scientist Kevin around the world. widespread flooding as oc- other conditions including appointing a designated
Trenberth explains, while There is a lot more natu- curred in many places over country representative, complying with tax obliga-
the temperature at Earth's ral variability in surface the past year. tions and acting "with a respectful acknowledgement
surface is what people ex- air temperatures than in The storms may also be- of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history
perience day to day, the ocean temperatures be- come more intense, big- on which such legislation has been built."
temperature in the upper cause of El Niño/La Niña ger and last longer. Several The lifting of the ban, though a good thing, offers little
part of the ocean is a bet- and weather events. That major flooding events have hope because "whether the government likes it or
ter indicator of how energy natural variability on top of occurred in Australia this not, one thing they have actually done is that they
is accumulating on the a warming ocean creates past year, and also in New have gagged Nigerians," said Idayat Hassan, who
planet. hot spots, sometimes called Zealand. Bigger snowfalls leads the West Africa-focused Centre for Democracy
The Conversation spoke "marine heat waves," that can also occur in winter and Development.
with Trenberth, coauthor of vary from year to year. provided temperatures re- "They have violated the right to receive and impact
a study published on Jan. Those hot spots have pro- main below about freezing information," Hassan said, adding that the Nigerian
11, 2022, by 23 researchers found influences on marine because warmer air holds government should instead prioritize "openness and
at 14 institutes that tracked life, from tiny plankton to more moisture. effective information flow."
warming in the world's fish, marine mammals and If greenhouse gas emissions There are no official estimates of the economic cost
oceans. birds. Other hot spots are slowed, would the ocean of Twitter's shutdown in Africa's most populous coun-
Your latest research shows responsible for more activ- cool down? try since June 4 when it was announced, but Net-
ocean heat is at record ity in the atmosphere, such In the oceans, warm water Blocks, which estimates the cost of internet shutdowns
highs. What does that tell as hurricanes. sits on top of cooler dens- worldwide, said Nigeria could be losing N103.1 million
us about global warming? While surface temperatures er waters. However, the ($251,000) in every hour of the blockade.
The world's oceans are are both a consequence oceans warm from the top In the course of the shutdown, many young people
hotter than ever record- and a cause, the main down, and consequently have been finding a way around the ban by turning
ed, and their heat has in- source of the phenomena the ocean is becoming to virtual private network (VPN) apps, but corporate
creased each decade causing extremes relates to more stratified. This inhibits services — some of which the Nigerian economy relies
since the 1960s. This relent- ocean heat that energizes mixing between layers that on — have remained shut out.
less increase is a primary in- weather systems. otherwise allows the ocean Authorities have also set the ball rolling on regulating
dicator of human-induced We found that all oceans to warm to deeper levels other social networks in the West African country. In
climate change. are warming, with the larg- and to take up carbon di- August 2021, information minister Lai Mohammed told
As oceans warm, their heat est amounts of warming in oxide and oxygen. Hence the government news agency that "we will not rest
supercharges weather sys- the Atlantic Ocean and in it impacts all marine life. until we regulate the social media, otherwise, nobody
tems, creating more pow- the Southern Ocean sur- We found that the top 500 will survive it."
erful storms and hurricanes, rounding Antarctica. That's meters of the ocean has But the government's claim it must regulate social net-
and more intense rainfall. also a concern for Ant- clearly been warming since works to fight fake news has been repeatedly con-
That threatens human lives arctica's ice and sea level 1980; the 500-1,000 meter tested by many activists.
and livelihoods as well as rise – heat in the Southern depths have been warm- While it is true that "the weaponization of information
marine life. Ocean can creep under ing since about 1990; the to spread fake news in Nigeria is quite high," an em-
The oceans take up about Antarctica's ice shelves, 1,000-1,500 meter depths phasis on countering fake news just online is actually
93% of the extra energy thinning them and resulting since 1998; and below defeating the purpose because it is both online and
trapped by the increasing in calving off of huge ice- 1,500 meters since about offline in Nigeria," said CDD director Hassan.q
greenhouse gases from hu- bergs. 2005. q