Climate Change - What It Is and How We Know It's Occurring

Happy Saturday!

We live on a blue planet. Our societies have proliferated along the coastlines for thousands of years. We rely on our oceans, seas, estuaries, and bays to provide us with abundant food, transportation, energy, and leisurely enjoyment. Since our livelihoods are so closely tied to these blue bodies of water, we rely on them not to change. A major change in the marine biosphere will unequivocally mean a major change for our societies. 

Yet the oceans are rapidly changing; hard data is available in reports from around the world. But, before we start talking about indicators of change, lets address how climate change is defined. The EPA provides this definition: "Climate change refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period of time (decades or longer). Climate change might result from natural factors and processes or from human activities."

In a new report titled "Climate Change Indicators in the US," the EPA provides 24 indicators that can be used to document climate change, 4 of these directly relate to the oceans, but 9 have major impacts on the oceans. The main four are: Ocean Heat, Sea Surface Temperatures, Sea Level Rise, and Ocean Acidification. These will all be discussed in the future.  

That's all the space I have for today, so come back next time to learn about past cycles of climate change, why ours is unique, and what we can expect from the future.

-N. Gallo 

Melting polar ice - just one of the many indicators of climate change.

(Photo credit: http://www.pharmacyescrow.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/global-warming-polar-bear.jpg)  

If you'd like to take a closer look at the EPA report, it's available here: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/indicators.html

What It's All About

Hello! Welcome to my Ocean Change blog. I'm thrilled that you've stopped by to check it out and I hope you'll keep coming back for more information. 

While many credible and informative blogs about climate change already exist online, none have specifically shown climate change from an oceanic perspective. As terrestrial beings, our point of view is focused on the land around us, and, as an afterthought, on the oceans. However, with regards to climate change, the oceans can no longer be a secondary consideration and physical, chemical, and biological ocean changes are rapidly occurring as scientists frantically try to grasp their magnitude and implications. Since 70% of our world is covered by oceans, this blog will shift the conversation and focus on climate change from an oceanic perspective.

I understand that we're all busy, so I'm going to keep every entry to a quick and easy 250 words. So, drop in during your coffee break, or when you're looking for a quick distraction, and learn something new and important in under 2 minutes. Then pass it on to your friends. My hope is that every entry leaves you better informed and engaged in the debate about how climate change is impacting our oceans. Entries will be published every other day and will focus on the research being conducted by scientists, and display their key findings and methods used.

That's the end of my 250 words, come back next time for a review of the main indicators of oceanic climate change.

-N. Gallo

 (Photo credit: http://c1.planetsave.com/files/2010/04/EPA-US-Climate-Change-Indicators-Ocean.jpg)

For more information on climate change, check out the U.S. EPA's website: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

For a broader look at climate change and energy use, check out Joe Romm's blog "Climate Progress" : http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/05/31/231343/introduction-to-climate-progress/