Rising Ocean Temperatures May Explain Climate Change Hiatus

Amongst the scientific community, climate change has become a generally recognised fact. However, those with political, corporate or other interests still maintain that climate change is either not as serious as some predict or in fact does even exist at all. It’s incredible to think that in the year 2015 climate change sceptics still exist, but the sad truth is that they do.

When the Earth’s temperature appeared to stop climbing from 2003 onwards after decades of steady increases, the sceptics seized upon this as proof of the non-threat of global warming. Indeed, in some regions of the world, temperatures actually appeared to drop – leaving scientists and environmentalists dumbfounded.

In June, a team of US governmental climate change researchers claimed that the discrepancy came from incomplete or poorly-compiled data and that updated records showed that climate change had never stopped. Now, NASA has produced evidence which points to a different theory to account for the hiatus in global warming.

The Answer is in the Ocean

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory decided to delve deep beneath the surface of the ocean to account for this mystery. By comparing directly temperatures taken from around the world, they were able to account for the deceleration and reversal of some land temperatures by rising temperatures in the sea, especially in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This is because greenhouse gases, which trap heat, were themselves being trapped in the depths of the oceans. While land temperatures may have been cooling, subaqueous temperatures were most definitely rising.

“Our findings support the idea that the Indo-Pacific interaction in the upper-level water (0–300 m depth) regulated global surface temperature over the past two decades and can fully account for the recently observed hiatus,” explained the study, which was published in the journal Science.

The study is believed to be more reliable than other data, which has relied heavily on climate change models and computer simulations. By contrast, the new findings are based directly upon observational data taken from the oceans themselves. It seems that contrary to popular belief, climate change is not slowing down at all, but continuing at the same rate as always.  

A Natural Record of Climate Change

As well as providing an explanation as to why global warming ostensibly slowed down or even paused, the oceans can also provide other vital clues to the changing face of our planet. For example, coral reefs around the world can act as natural archives of climate change, documenting the changing levels of lead and other heavy metals in the world’s oceans.

Understanding this information will help us to curb our wasteful habits and ensure that both the underwater life and beauty is preserved, as well as that above sea level.