Watercolor octopus. Have you ever watched the Netflix movie "My Octopus Teacher?" If not, I strongly encourage you to do so. Such a beautiful portrait of man and octopus becoming friends. I'll warn you though, you may cry at the end.
Cancun beach, abstract. Mixed media painting combining photography and digital art. I find this image so calming. Thought it was perfect for #SilentSunday
"A man from #Dildo, N.L. has captured the attention of #iceberg lovers after photographing an oddly-shaped #hunk — now popularly known as the '#dickie berg' on social media — off the coast of #Newfoundland... in an area of the province known as #Conception Bay."
Over the past 15 years, the Earth has accumulated almost as much heat as it did in the previous 45 years, with most of the extra energy going into the oceans.
This month, the global sea surface hit a new record high temperature. It has never warmed this much this quickly.
Scientists don't fully understand why this has happened.
🚨 From the Guardian...
Temperatures in the world’s oceans have broken fresh records, testing new highs for more than a month in an “unprecedented” run that has led to scientists stating the Earth has reached “uncharted territory” in the climate crisis.
The rapid acceleration of ocean temperatures in the last month is an anomaly that scientists have yet to explain.
Prof Mike Meredith of the British Antarctic Survey said: “This has got scientists scratching their heads. The fact that it is warming as much as it has been is a real surprise, and very concerning. It could be a short-lived extreme high, or it could be the start of something much more serious.”
Some scientists fear that the rapid warming could be a sign of the climate crisis progressing at a faster rate than predicted.
🚨 From Grist...
Oceans have absorbed a massive amount of the carbon dioxide that humans have generated since the Industrial Revolution. In total, oceans have absorbed some 90% of the heat caused by human-induced climate change. But that benefit comes with a devastating cost.
The globe’s oceans have become warmer and more acidic over time, which has wide-ranging repercussions for marine life and human well-being. Rising ocean temperatures lead to changing circulation patterns, coral bleaching, sea-level rise, changes in fish migration and marine food webs, and ocean deoxygenation — when oceanic “dead zones” form.
Scientists have cautioned that the ocean cannot absorb emissions forever — there will come a time when the water bodies grow so warm they begin to emit carbon dioxide instead of absorbing it. The recent, sustained spike in sea surface temperatures throws the long-term viability of the world’s oceans into sharp relief.
“This is heading in an unprecedented direction, and could be taking us into uncharted territory,” said Ben Webber, professor of climate science at the University of East Anglia.
🚨 All signs point to a climate emergency, not in the future, but right now.
Colors merge and fade
Ocean's beauty glows
Silent beauty reigns
San Clemente Pier Glow was captured on a warm summer evening with a very slow shutter. I love what it did to the water and the waves and the beautiful glow of the pier lights. Love the soft feel.
Physical copies have arrived! Blue Machine is out on June 1st in the UK and October 3rd in the US (with a different cover design). https://linktr.ee/bluemachinebook
The story of the ocean - the water itself, not the dolphins, fish and plastic in it - is the biggest story on Earth. If you’ve ever posed the Monty Python style question “but WOT has the ocean ever done for us?”, here’s your answer. #ocean#BlueMachine
Get ready for an epic excursion into one of the last great frontiers on Earth with The Deep Ocean by Michael Vecchione, Louise Allcock, Imants Priede, & Hans van Haren. Out now in hardcover & ebook, it is breathtaking and packed with information. https://princeton.press/fti2c3
Atlantic Ocean - slightly abstracted waves rolling onshore just after sunrise. Panning the camera during exposure gave it a nice feeling of movement. Captured at the Jersey shore on a cold March day.
In an alarming article, Dillon Amaya, Climate Research Scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), tells us:
"El Niño is coming, and ocean temps are already at record highs – that can spell disaster for fish and corals"
During El Niño, a swath of ocean stretching 6,000 miles (about 10,000 kilometers) westward off the coast of Ecuador warms for months on end, typically by 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1 to 2 degrees Celsius). A few degrees may not seem like much, but in that part of the world, it’s more than enough to completely reorganize wind, rainfall, and temperature patterns all over the planet.
El Niño can wreak havoc on the many marine ecosystems that support the world’s fishing industries, including coral reefs and seagrass meadows.
Specifically, El Niño tends to trigger intense and widespread periods of extreme ocean warming known as marine heat waves.
Global ocean temperatures are already at record highs, so El Niño-induced marine heat waves could push many sensitive fisheries to a breaking point.