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SCIENCESaturday 30 January 2016
Study: Man-made heat put in oceans has doubled since 1997
SETH BORENSTEIN This image shows Pacific and Atlantic meridional sections show- ing about, they are really, tist at Lawrence Livermore,
AP Science Writers ing upper-ocean warming for the past six decades (1955-2011). really big numbers,” said said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The The amount of global-warming triggered heat energy absorbed study co-author Paul Du- Because the oceans are
amount of man-made by the seas has doubled since 1997, a new study showed. Sci- rack, an oceanographer so vast and cold, the ab-
heat energy absorbed entists have long known that more than 90 percent of the heat at the Lawrence Livermore sorbed heat raises tem-
by the seas has doubled energy from man-made global warming goes into the world’s National Lab in California. peratures by only a few
since 1997, a recent study oceans instead of the ground. And they’ve seen ocean heat “They are nonhuman num- tenths of a degree, but the
showed. content rise in recent years. bers.” importance is the energy
Scientists have long known Because there are de- balance, Gleckler and
that more than 90 percent (Timo Bremer/Lawrence Livermore Laboratory/AP) cades when good data his colleagues said. When
of the heat energy from wasn’t available and com- oceans absorb all that
man-made global warm- journal Nature Climate would be 2 zettajoules. So puter simulations are in- heat it keeps the surface
ing goes into the world’s volved, the overall figures from getting even warmer
oceans instead of the Change. since 1997, Earth’s oceans are rough but still are reli- from the heat-trapping
ground. And they’ve seen able, the study’s authors gases spewed by the burn-
ocean heat content rise in To put that in perspective, if have absorbed man-made said. Most of the added ing of coal, oil and gas, the
recent years. But the new heat has been trapped in scientists said.
study, using ocean-observ- you exploded one atomic heat energy equivalent to the upper 2,300 feet, but The warmer the oceans
ing data that goes back with every year the deeper get, the less heat they can
to the British research ship bomb the size of the one a Hiroshima-style bomb be- oceans also are absorbing absorb and the more heat
Challenger in the 1870s more energy, they said. stays in the air and on land
and including high-tech that dropped on Hiroshima ing exploded every second But the study’s authors and surface, the study’s co-au-
modern underwater moni- outside experts say it’s not thor, Chris Forest at Pennsyl-
tors and computer models, every second for a year, for 75 straight years. the raw numbers that both- vania State University, said.
tracked how much man- er them. It’s how fast those “These finding have poten-
made heat has been bur- the total energy released “The changes we’re talk- numbers are increasing. tially serious consequences
ied in the oceans in the “After 2000 in particular for life in the oceans as well
past 150 years. the rate of change is really as for patterns of ocean
The world’s oceans ab- starting to ramp up,” Du- circulation, storm tracks
sorbed approximately 150 rack said. and storm intensity,” said
zettajoules of energy from This means the amount of Oregon State University
1865 to 1997, and then energy being trapped in marine sciences professor
absorbed about another Earth’s climate system as a Jane Lubchenco, the for-
150 in the next 18 years, whole is accelerating, the mer chief of the National
according to a study study’s lead author Peter Oceanic and Atmospheric
published Monday in the Gleckler, a climate scien- Administration.q
