The Heating Ocean

The podcast discusses how the ocean controls temperature and why it's becoming less effective. It mentions the ocean's currents, including surface and deep ocean currents, and how they are influenced by trade winds and the Coriolis effect. The overturning process, which regulates global temperature, is also explained. The impact of carbon dioxide on the ocean is discussed, including how it affects the ocean's acidity and marine life. The melting of polar ice due to warming temperatures slows down the overturning process, leading to potential climate and weather problems. Predictions suggest a weakening of the process by 11-34% by 2100. The measurement of the process is challenging but can be done using buoys. The consequences of the overturning process slowing down include ocean acidification and rising sea levels. The podcast concludes by highlighting the importance of global cooperation in finding a solution to the issue of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Hello and welcome to today's podcast, everyone. In today's podcast, I will be talking about the ocean. More specifically, how the ocean controls the temperature and how it's getting worse at its job. In today's podcast, I will be using a TED talk by Susan Loisier titled Is Climate Change Slowing Down the Ocean? In this, she brings up multiple different major topics such as how the ocean's currents work, how carbon dioxide is affecting the ocean, and how the ocean affects the temperature around the globe. Firstly, she talks about how the ocean's currents work. The ocean's currents have two different types of currents, the surface currents and the deep ocean currents. The surface currents work by trade winds and the direction in which they blow. They also work by the surface under the water, which directs the direction of the water, allowing it to travel along the edges of the land and moving the water in certain directions. Once the water reaches closer to the poles, it starts getting colder and denser, making it sink down to the depths, in which the currents then go in opposite directions, thanks to the Coriolis effect. The way I know the Coriolis effect works is that the earth rotates faster on the poles than the equator, allowing the water to go in opposite directions. Then the water goes and gets to the equator, where it then heats back up and goes back to becoming a surface current. The earth's current circulation process is called the overturning process. This overturning process is how the earth maintains the temperature around the globe. As Susan Louisière states, that the movement maintains a 30 degrees Celsius difference between the equator and the poles. Without these fluid motions, that temperature difference would be 110 degrees Celsius, and not just over the ocean, inland as well. She states that at 2 minutes and 15 seconds. This means that the poles would be completely frozen and the equator would be much more hotter than it is right now. Going into how carbon dioxide affects the ocean, this happens by the carbon dioxide sticking to the water, making it move throughout the overturning process. This makes the ocean a storage of carbon dioxide, which in turn affects the climate. Due to the ocean being like a bank for carbon dioxide, and because of this, the ocean now stores 30 percent of the carbon dioxide released by humanity since the start of the industrial revolution. This would be good normally because it takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The reason as to why this is not good for the ocean, however, is because it increases the ocean's acidity. With the increase of the ocean's acidity, it makes it not good for any marine life with a skeletal structure or one that has a shell. As the ocean warms, the ice at the poles melts, making the overturning process slow because the water will not cool as fast as it would with the ice. If the overturning process slows, it will not be good for the earth. For starters, the carbon dioxide intake by the ocean would not be as much, and the earth would warm at a faster rate. It could also cause multiple different climate and weather problems. Some of those weather conditions that could happen are stronger hurricanes and intense precipitation. The slowing of the overturning process could happen very fast, such as in a few decades to possibly just a few years. The overturning process is likely to slow around 2100, but that does not mean that we are safe, because like I said, it could just change very fast. With the overturning process slowing by then, predictions say that over the century, the overturning process is going to weaken between 11 and 34 percent. There are organizations and equipment dedicated to measuring the slowing of the ocean turning process. They measure the ocean's currents, being both the surface and the deep currents. One major problem about trying to determine the slowing of the ocean's overturning process, however, is the measurements. They're unpredictable as to where they're going to go. The way in how Susan puts it is it is similar to reading the stock market. There is no way of predicting if it's going to be going up or if it's going to be going down accurately. There is another thing that measures the ocean's overturning process, and it is a buoy. The way in how this buoy is measuring the process is by measuring the exchange of carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atmosphere. This is a worldwide buoy that can be seen around the world. Overall, the slowing of the overturning process causes more ocean acidification and the rising of the sea level. The only way that we as people can help fix the issue is by uniting worldwide and finding a solution for this major problem. The main problem is the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in which everyone collectively can help fix. Unfortunately, that is all the time that I have for you today. I hope you have enjoyed, and as always, have a great day.