The ocean carbon sink is ailing: 10% drop in CO₂ absorption seen during record 2023 marine heat wave
Posted by Portalrules123@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 25 comments
MistyMtn421@reddit
I know it's a work of fiction, but isn't this what was happening in ministry of the future? If I remember correctly even though they really adjusted what we were doing to make everything worse, we were still screwed because the oceans simply could not cool down. That book is becoming less fiction day by day.
Konradleijon@reddit
It’s like a boiling pot of water
SimpleAsEndOf@reddit
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Current_Chart5033@reddit
Exactly. There was a question in a different comment in this thread asking how long before we see the collapse. I think the collapse is currently in process and it won’t be a specific time we can point at and call it the collapse. It is just hard for our human brains to wrap around this concept.
TuneGlum7903@reddit
The paper's conclusion is NOT reassuring. It states that:
"The future of the marine sink remains uncertain."
The study is one of the first to draw on actual observations as a foundation for insights into the behavior of a warming ocean. "We cannot yet say with certainty, however, how this important carbon sink will develop in the future," Müller notes.
One thing is clear: since the record-high temperatures of the year 2023, the world's ocean has hardly cooled down and Earth continues to warm up. Heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense. "It is unclear, however, as to whether the compensating mechanisms will remain effective over the long term and limit temperature-driven outgassing," Gruber points out.
The two researchers concede that the marine carbon sink could absorb less CO₂ in the future. "For the time being, however, the global ocean is still absorbing a great deal of CO₂—fortunately," states Gruber.
1genuine_ginger@reddit
Ha "fortunately" for who?
Beneficial_Table_352@reddit
How long we got til biosphere collapse? Any guesses? I wanna take one more stab at higher education before the end
Current_Chart5033@reddit
I think we will see it in our lifetimes
CorvidCorbeau@reddit
By all means you should. Basic biosphere services are functional now, and it will be next year, and the year after, and so on. There might come a point when it reaches a critical level of degradation, and some or most ecosystem services cease to work. Maybe in your lifetime, maybe not.
Nobody has a timeline for this, because no one is clairvoyant.
What we all know is that time is limited. Not just because of worsening systemic problems, that can unfold in a million different ways. Think about how many people lose their lives in accidents each day, and none of them saw it coming.
If you want to do something, see something, make something, do it as soon as possible. Make as much of your life as you can. You never know how many more opportunities you have left. Just be sensible in your life choices.
JackBlackBowserSlaps@reddit
Do what makes you happy, don’t wait on timelines. As much as we like to guess, no one really knows what will happen, or when.
abstrakt42@reddit
I enrolled in a new degree starting last June. Don’t wait. Even if everything works out for the planet, don’t wait.
Beneficial_Table_352@reddit
I'll give it a crack thanks mate
Active-Pudding9855@reddit
The next el niño is going to be interesting. For sure. 🔥👌 I guess it will start sometime next year or the year after.
GenProtection@reddit
You guys are always so pessimistic Look on the bright side If enough carbon is absorbed into enough water sources, we could bottle spring water to get seltzer!
/s
Beastw1ck@reddit
10% seems very very bad…
pippopozzato@reddit
wait until next year ... LOL.
Automatic-Funny-8842@reddit
Or 5 years hehe
m-alacasse@reddit
This is terrifying and a huge deal that isn't getting nearly enough attention.
CorvidCorbeau@reddit
That is a significant difference. Year to year variations exist, but 2023 (the last data point) on this graph was a pretty sharp drop. Granted, it may be a drop from a near record high, but it's still a concerning indicator for the relationship between ocean surface temperature and CO2 absorption.
Outside_Bed5673@reddit
warm soda loses bubbles faster than cold soda pop.
this is not a can of soda - oceans are enormous - and the Indian Ocean at 33C recently and the Mediterranean at 4C+ above normal ?
Any_Case1754@reddit
Hang on, 33°C ?!?! That’s seriously terrifying. The ramifications of global warming are going to be unprecedented in human history.
Portalrules123@reddit (OP)
SS: Related to climate collapse as a new study has shown that the oceans absorbed about 10% less CO2 than expected in 2023 based on the average of previous years. This makes sense as the oceans were experiencing a record global marine heatwave during an El Niño and the warmer water gets the less CO2 it can absorb. This is bad news as the oceans have historically absorbed a lot of the excess CO2 and 90% of the excess heat that we are pumping into the biosphere. A significant decrease in ocean carbon sink potential is going to accelerate warming, and this is likely one of the reasons behind 2023 and 2024 being the two warmest years on record both for sea surface temperature and global surface temperature in general. Expect the ocean carbon sink to continue failing as we pump multiple nuclear bombs of heat per second into it.
TuneGlum7903@reddit
This is interesting. It's confirmation of something I wrote about last year (2024).
83 - 2023 was a BAD year for the Earth’s Climate. (08/05/24)
I was discussing this paper:
Low latency carbon budget analysis reveals a large decline of the land carbon sink in 2023 — This study was presented at the International Carbon Dioxide Conference in Manaus, Brazil, July 2024
NORMALLY, the Terrestrial Land “Sinks” absorb about 25% of that CO2 each year. That’s about 9.35 GtCO2 annually.
This “land carbon sink” exists because forests and other land ecosystems take up slightly more CO2 as they grow than they release when plants die and decompose or burn each year.
Despite the claims of Deniers that increased levels of CO2 will spur plant growth and “balance our emissions”. Studies have found that the “CO2” boost has been about 2 GtCO2/year over the last decade. The effect is real, but not nearly enough to “balance human emissions”.
In 2023, the Terrestrial Land Sinks only absorbed about 0.44 GtCO2.
In 2023, however, the land sink removed only about 0.44 GtCO2 — the lowest amount since 2003 and more than three times lower than the average over the past decade, according to the researcher’s estimates.
Conversely, they found that the ocean carbon sink increased in 2023 by around a gigatonne, ruling the oceans out as a source of the jump in atmospheric CO2.”
So, about an extra 8 GtCO2 went into the atmosphere last year.
PervyNonsense@reddit
I would bet anything that you can translate this into proportionate decrease in marine biomass.
The oceans are a graveyard.
StatementBot@reddit
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Portalrules123:
SS: Related to climate collapse as a new study has shown that the oceans absorbed about 10% less CO2 than expected in 2023 based on the average of previous years. This makes sense as the oceans were experiencing a record global marine heatwave during an El Niño and the warmer water gets the less CO2 it can absorb. This is bad news as the oceans have historically absorbed a lot of the excess CO2 and 90% of the excess heat that we are pumping into the biosphere. A significant decrease in ocean carbon sink potential is going to accelerate warming, and this is likely one of the reasons behind 2023 and 2024 being the two warmest years on record both for sea surface temperature and global surface temperature in general. Expect the ocean carbon sink to continue failing as we pump multiple nuclear bombs of heat per second into it.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1n71mrk/the_ocean_carbon_sink_is_ailing_10_drop_in_co₂/nc49ery/