The US Center at COP 19 was the venue for a presentation by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, leaning on a lot of work carried out through NOAA and NASA. The oceans are under severe stress, not only by overfishing and being used as a dumping ground for all of the worlds trash, but also by acidification. Our atmosphere, stressed as it is, would have even more carbon dioxide were it not for the fact that this gas dissolves readily into water. Unfortunately, carbon dioxide is at least as harmful to the oceans as it is to the air.
Amazingly sophisticated scientific work is being done. The two presentations, “Climate Change and the World’s Oceans” and “Ocean Deoxygenation in a Warming World,” were extraordinarily instructive. It turns out that our country has a veritable army of satellites and measuring devices tracking such things as ocean currents, wind, surface temperature, water height, salinity and gravity. These measurements can be coordinated to answer seemingly esoteric questions on the workings of the ocean.
Some more info on the fate of oceans: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24904143
ReplyDeleteHere at COP19, we have seen several examples of the amazing U.S. technological expertise used to study greenhouse gases, other pollutants, and the changing climate. The presentation of the results of these studies has been very analytical, without emotion. Yet the implications of the data are quite sobering in terms of our future.
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