Ocean Temperatures Are Hitting Record Highs. Again.
What a shock, the line keeps going up just like we said it would
Every year we hit a new record for ocean warming.
Every year we lose reefs, we lose species, we see mass die-offs and pollution. We lose a little bit more of the most wondrous, spectacular ecosystems our planet has to offer.
We ain’t called the Blue Planet for nothin’, and our oceans cover the vast majority of Earth’s surface. Most life on Earth exists in the water, and everything alive depends on that substance to survive.
It’s liquid life. The miracle that allows us to exist.
If you know me, you know I love the ocean. I was born on the shores of the Atlantic — or at least close enough that you could see the beach from the hospital windows. I grew up hunting shells, being harassed by sea gulls and observing crabs scuttling across the sands.
I love the ocean. The sound of the waves may as well be my heart beat, and I’ve written about it extensively.
So when I tell you that the newest records terrify me to my core, you know I’m not kidding. I said as much when I warned you about the loss of ocean monitoring systems due to Trump’s campaign to ignore climate change — though, thankfully, public pressure won out on that specific issue.
He had to give in and stop fucking around with the project. Thank goodness for that, because this news proves exactly how badly we need it.
Every time a new, higher degree is reached, we lose something vital.
Every degree is a new loss of polar ice, more carbon released into the atmosphere, another stone on the scale tipping us over the edge of no return.
I’ve written before about how I find more plastic than shells on the shore now. I find more trash than driftwood, more nets than crabs. I find more dead fish than I can find darting through the shallows, flourishing like they did when I was little.
I remember chasing schools of tiny fish out in the bay when I was small. I wonder if there are any left these days? I haven’t been up home in a long time, but I was by the ocean shore a few months ago after my wedding.
I didn’t see much life out there. Just the gulls. And not even enough of them to hear their calls from afar.
The latest report from Copernicus Marine Service, Europe’s ocean observation organization, just came out a few days ago. Their scientists are raising the alarm for the hottest June on record with regard to ocean warming.
This is disastrous for the ocean, of course, but also for us. This will bring more extreme weather, impact fishing and marine-based agriculture, and increase the risk of diseases and toxic algae blooms.
The North Atlantic, my neck of the proverbial woods, has been struck by severe marine heatwaves which pose a risk to our native species. Our sharks, fish, whales and crustaceans are used to a certain pattern of temperature and weather, and that is being heavily disrupted now.
When you fuck up the ecosystem, animals die or migrate away and food chains collapse.
Food chain collapse destabilizes everything.
The Earth is a closed system, a delicate balancing act that has evolved to work a certain way over millions of years. We keep throwing wrenches into that system and expecting it to work itself out like it’s no big deal.
Well, it don’t work that way, sweetheart.
Mama Nature doesn’t give a shit what your bottom line is, she follows her own rules and there are consequences for pissing her off.
You wanna talk about ‘Fuck Around and Find Out?’
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Solidarity wins.