A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration comined global heat.
By: Rakesh Agrawal, ‘Ridh’
As the atmospheric temperature is rising, the earth is becoming warmer, so much so that scientists now say that our earth is having a fever!
(See: The Seattle Times: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/scientists-annual-physical-of-planet-earths-fever-rises/).
The new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration combine heat energy absorbed by the oceans and lowest groundwater storage levels globally, “I think the time to call the doctor was years ago,” NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, co-editor of the report, said in an email. “We are awash in multiple symptoms.”
If the doctors don’t start treating this feverish earth immediately, it could be too late as the 2015 State of the Climate report examined 50 different aspects of climate, including dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice and glaciers worldwide. More than a dozen of different nations set hottest year records, including Russia, India, and China. In South Africa, the hottest temperature was ever recorded in October: 119.1 degrees Fahrenheit (48.4 degrees Celsius).
“There is really only one word for this parade of shattered climate records: grim,” said Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb, who wasn’t part of the report, but called it “exhaustive and thorough.”
This hot climate affected walrus and penguin populations and played a role in dangerous algae blooms off the Pacific Northwest coast. And, brutal heat waves all over the world, including in Indian and Pakistan, killed thousands of people. One-third of Earth’s land mass had some kind of drought last year.
Oklahoma University meteorology professor Jason Furtado opined, “It was like injecting an already amped-up climate system with a dose of (natural) steroids.”
About 450 scientists from around the world helped write the report and in it, NOAA highlighted one of the lesser-known measurements, ocean heat content. About 93 percent of the heat energy trapped by greenhouse gasses — such as carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas — goes directly into the ocean. And ocean heat content hit record levels both near the surface and deep.
Cutting down the burning of all types of fossil fuels and growing more and more trees is the only medicines that can bring the earth’s fever down.