Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates

Re:Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating acc... by todd8 on Monday January 13, 2020 @04:16PM (#22038679)

I wish that popular press accounts of science could be a bit more precise. What exactly does "rate of heating accelerates" mean. The graphs seem to indicate a relatively steady rate of temperature increase (not an accelerating rate) in the oceans over the last 40 years. This corresponds to the the relatively steady rate of increase in the global temperature over the same time period [1].

More precisely, it looks to me like the second derivative of the ocean temperature is approximately zero, whereas the headline suggests that the second derivative of temperature is much greater than zero.

Obviously, the reported heating is great a concern, but the original article, not surprisingly, [2] appears to be behind a paywall.

[1] https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/...

[2] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6423/128.full

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Re:Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating acc... by tracker1 on Monday January 13, 2020 @04:36PM (#22038916)

The verbiage also indicates a fair amount of bias...

> because they absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuel burning, forest destruction and other human activities

Up to 90% of greenhouse gas volume is water vapor... human activities definitely have an effect, but the statement above inflates the involvement and creates an alarmist feel.

I'm all for making better choices and policy change. Throwing away money on things that won't help or disguising political interests behind the environment won't help the planet as a whole.

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Re:Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating acc... by ForHackernews on Monday January 13, 2020 @05:57PM (#22039682)

My high school physics is rusty, but is the relationship between heat and temperature a linear one? The article seems to be talking about heat energy, rather than temperature in degrees:

> The results show heat increasing at an accelerating rate as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere. The rate from 1987 to 2019 is four and a half times faster than that from 1955 to 1986.

And the axis on the chart says:

> Change in heat content relative to 1981-2010 average in zettajoules

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