Are oceans warming faster than previously thought?

Question

"The new study by Australian and US climate researchers, published in the journal Nature, concludes that the upper 700 metres of the world's oceans warmed at a rate 50 per cent faster in the last four decades of 20th century than documented in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, which produces a consensus view of scientists around the world."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/18/scisea118.xml

Answer 1

Didn't this study come out a few months ago? I'll see if I can dig up the actual study, rather than a news article.

Ken said:

"The latest IPCC estimate on sea-level rise has been criticized as being too conservative (in spite the nonsensical claims by doubters that the IPCC are a bunch of alarmists) since it was released. This report is just one more data-point that supports the idea that the IPCC was indeed overly cautious on this issue"

It is ironic, though, that the FAR slashed the sea level rise estimates from TAR. Interesting, eh?

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Edit:

Ken said

"bob326 - I'm disappointed in you. You didn't read my link, did you? It explains the apples and orange confusion of trying to do a direct comparison of the summary TAR and FAR sea-level numbers. I'll quote the conclusion for you:"

You are disappointed in me? Why, what ever should I do? Merely the idea that you could be disappointed in me, a "denialist" (even though that term is nowhere near accurate in my case), is a great achievement in my mind. Unless, of course, that comment was meant in a sarcastic tone, which i'll assume it was.

As far as not reading your link, I did. I read the first link you posted, and not the realclimate link. Though in this case, i guess I should have read both.

thanks

Answer 2

Scientist know the knowledge, & they should  know what they're talking about. It's then up to the politicians of this world to pass laws, take action on the information given, to ensure, that the environment is safe & clean...The corals, & certain sharks etc are dying or vanishing as a species, as tv reports have indicated! So yes...I believe, that the oceans are warming faster!

Answer 3

They appear to be, and this is very worrisome, yes.

Answer 4

"Nature, concludes that the upper 700 metres of the world's oceans warmed at a rate 50 per cent faster in the last four decades of 20th century "

That is a sweet statement, we know more about the surface of mars than we know about the first 700 meters of Earths oceans.

Answer 5

As global temperatures are falling, researchers have to look in some obscure places to try to find evidence of global warming.  

Carefully selecting data which supports your beliefs is just not scientific.

Answer 6

Ben, are you just totally ignorant?  No one thinks global temperatures are falling, not even the people who believe Global Warming is not attributable to human actions.

Here, an article from yesterday, discussing the surge in Jellyfish populations in the worlds oceans, which might be attributable to overfishing and climate change.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080618/sc_...

Just one quote from that article:

Two centuries worth of data shows that jellyfish populations naturally swell every 12 years, remain stable four or six years, and then subside.

2008, however, will be the eighth consecutive year that medusae, as they are also known, will be present in massive numbers.

Answer 7

You can't argue with the "consensus"!!  It's a CONSENSUS!!  Who are these heretics to question the IPCC?  Sorry....too funny.

If the ocean's warming faster than previously thought, and warm oceans hold less CO2, we may have found the TRUE source of the extra CO2 the IPCC attributes to man.  Good find!

Edit (Ken):  I'm sorry, you gave two links opining on predictions unrelated to the question at hand...where are the links supporting THIS statement:

"There is no debate about the isotope make up of the increased atmospheric CO2. It comes from fossil fuel burning."

Answer 8

As a matter of interest are there special rose coloured glasses deniers buy before looking at weather sites and then claiming (like Ben O) that the world is cooling or do they use tea leaves or runes.

Because as far as I can tell the opposite is the fact

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008...

Answer 9

evans - There is no debate about the isotope make up of the increased atmospheric CO2. It comes from fossil fuel burning.  A warming ocean only means more natural CO2 (on top of current natural and anthropogenic emissions) will be released into the atmosphere.  That's one of the feedbacks that concern climate scientists.

The latest IPCC estimate on sea-level rise has been criticized as being too conservative (in spite the nonsensical claims by doubters that the IPCC are a bunch of alarmists) since it was released. This report is just one more data-point that supports the idea that the IPCC was indeed overly cautious on this issue.

http://scitizen.com/stories/Climate-Chan...

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/arc...

Edit:

bob326 - I'm disappointed in you. You didn't read my link, did you?  It explains the apples and orange confusion of trying to do a direct comparison of the summary TAR and FAR sea-level numbers. I'll quote the conclusion for you:

"The main conclusion of this analysis is that sea level uncertainty is not smaller now than it was at the time of the TAR, and that quoting the 18-59 cm range of sea level rise, as many media articles have done, is not telling the full story. 59 cm is unfortunately not the “worst case”. It does not include the full ice sheet uncertainty, which could add 20 cm or even more. It does not cover the full “likely” temperature range given in the AR4 (up to 6.4 ºC) – correcting for that could again roughly add 15 cm. ... Considering these issues, a sea level rise exceeding one metre can in my view by no means ruled out."

Answer 10

The problem is that they have stopped warming during the past five years.

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/a...

Answer 11

It's unknown.  Ocean temperature data up to 2003 is not homogeneous.  The methods of collecting water varied, and in certain cases was unknown or erroneously attributed to an alternate method.  I would not weigh this report too heavily.

In 2003, JPL launched their ARGO ocean temperature project which measures the top 900m.  For the period 2003 to 2007 the system indicated no increase in ocean temperature.  This result was in opposition to the models and prompted lead researcher pause and conclude more study is needed.  ARGO is a network of 3000 sensors, and while the data indicates a slight cooling of the oceans, the degree of change (-0.075941 +/- 0.2139 W/m^2) could best be described as unchanged.

I agree with Dr Willis, more study is indicated.

Answer 12

There is significant research that indicates that there is a pattern of ocean warming. However, many in the scientific community do not agree it is caused by human activity. A string of research indicates that ocean warming is being caused by unusual plate tectonic activity and underwater volcanic activity.