The tall ship Tecla, a Dutch North Sea sailing herring dragger built in 1915, was bound for Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. It was tied by three heavy hawser lines to the ferry quay in Ullapool, Northwest Scotland, a town of white-washed buildings packed together for the herring fishery. We were ready to sail…
There was no ambiguity to the title of the juried science journal article: “Warning of a forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.” Any year within this century, ocean currents will completely stop if we continue to emit the same level of greenhouse gasses as we do today. When the movement of the Atlantic…
Massachusetts officially declared April 24 as Right Whale Day to raise awareness about the endangered: North Atlantic right whales, the state’s official marine mammal. Right whales have been coming to Cape Cod Bay in April for as long as there has been a Cape Cod Bay. These sandy, shoaly waters warm faster than deeper, dark-bottom…
“Greenland lost a record amount of ice during an extra warm 2019, with the melt massive enough to cover California in more than four feet (1.25 meters) of water.” This report was alarming for many who relied on experts’ findings, particularly regarding climate change. It was not scary for those who paid attention in Geography…
We’ve been experiencing a lot of severe weather systems this past year. From flash floods to hurricanes to wildfires, this year has not been without climate-driven challenges. There is something else that could make the severe weather systems we’ve been experiencing even worse. Two new studies, published in Nature and the Journal of Climate, looked…
Pummeled by rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and increasing ocean acidity, headlines tell of climate change giving the ocean another punch. “A crucial system of ocean currents is faltering.” “A critical ocean system may be heading for collapse due to climate change.” “Climate crisis: Scientists spot warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse.” Yet, as…
To meet the ravages of climate change, Congress has introduced the Ocean Based Climate Solutions Act (HR.8632). The ocean covers nearly three-quarters of the planet. Nothing has more of an impact on the climate than does the ocean. About one out of every four carbon dioxide molecules emitted into the atmosphere are drawn down into…
Methane hydrate, the so-called monster, lies beneath the sea floor. In sediments on the ocean bottom, microorganisms remove oxygen making conditions lower down anoxic. Here, methanogens produce methane that is trapped as the notorious gas hydrates. In practice, rather than theory, there is a catastrophic difference between the increasing summer melt of Arctic Ocean sea…
