Climate review for 2023:
The numbers for 2023 are out, and in all categories, the trends are not good. Last year was the deadliest year this century for forest fires. Even more remarkable was the scale. 988 million acres of land (globally ) burned. In perspective, that area is the size of Alaska, Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, and Florida combined. The fires emitted an astounding 6.5 billion tons of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. They reduced the Earth’s carbon sinks by a whopping 10 percent. Obviously, we cannot do this every year.
The 2023 also saw a staggering jump in ocean temperatures. The rise was far more than what was expected from El Nino, and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Are we losing the oceans as a carbon sink? They have absorbed most of the excess heat from climate change so far. Are they now at their limit? No one knows.
Ocean Fevers:
Hot oceans are dangerous for many reasons. I will focus on just their capacity to increase the potency of storms. Still, the damage is much broader, like coral reef destruction and the loss of fish stocks that feed the world.
Storms are generally heat engines. The more heat on one side of a front compared to the other causes intensification. That is very simplistic, but as a generalization, it is true. So, it is no wonder why we have seen such catastrophic and rapidly…
