The Ocean's Fever: Climate scientists warn nature's 'anaesthetics' have worn off

Archived version

Like many others I have been keeping a close eye on the graphs at climatereanalyzer.org for awhile, and let me tell you they are TERRIFYING right now.

The ‘anaesthetics’ mentioned in the title refers to things like the ENSO, carbon captured by the ocean, and ice and aerosol albedo, whose roles the last few years have helped mask the true effects of global warming. That’s changing this year.

From the article:

The last El Niño event was in 2015 to 2016, which also happened to be the warmest year on record for global average surface temperatures on land and sea.
But Dr Cai said the Earth this year was “eight years of background warming” worse off than in 2016.

The bright, smooth surface of the ice reflects a lot of sunlight back into space, meaning its heat is not absorbed into the ocean.
Antarctic sea ice extent this year has fallen to record lows and is struggling to recover substantially during the winter months like normal.

Aerosols act like a “shade” to incoming sunlight, reflecting it back into space.
“We’ve been reducing emissions, which is good for air quality, but it means now the carbon dioxide signal can punch through,” Professor Collins said.

Dr Bracco said this year’s record was indicative of a level of background global warming that could not be undone for hundreds of years, and urgent action was needed to stop it getting worse.