The main reason g l o b a l w a r m i n g is accelerating and will continue to accelerate is that ocean heat uptake, especially in the uppermost 300 meters of ocean depth, has gone into hyperdrive in just the last few years - since 2020. The ocean absorbs about 90% of the growing Earth Energy Imbalance but in recent years more and more of this heat absorption has shifted to the uppermost layer so that the ocean, which was once a vast heat sink has now become a heat source for the atmosphere. This fundamental shift was not predicted and is now greatly accelerating atmospheric warming, along with associated increasing water vapor (a powerful greenhouse gas) on average over the oceans.
Ocean heat uptake in the uppermost 300 meters is exceptionally fast, with this surface layer absorbing approximately 40% of the total excess heat accumulated in the ocean since 1960. This upper 300 meter layer acts as the primary heat sink for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, experiencing faster warming rates than deeper layers. The warming in this layer has accelerated much faster in just the last few years due to its more rapid thermal and thus density stratification as well as a thinning mixed layer immediately below the surface. So now the ocean surface has become a new primary heat source for the atmosphere.
[One ZJ is 10 to the 21st power joules which is roughly 10 to 20 times the total annual global electricity production.]
The annual average ocean heat uptake by the top 2,000 meters of the global ocean for the years:
1958–1985: 2.9 ± 0.5 ZJ per year
1986–2022: 9.2 ± 0.4 ZJ per year
2007–2022: 10–13 ZJ per year
2020 to 2021: 19 ± 6 ZJ
2021 to 2022: 18 ± 8 ZJ.
2024: 16 ZJ more than in 2023.
2025: 23 ZJ more than in 2024.
The 2025 surge in ocean heat uptake was driven by a combination of long-term human-caused factors and specific atmospheric shifts:
1. The continued rise in atmospheric concentrations of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide remained the fundam…
Climate models did not predict these changes. It’s the rate of warming which is worsening heating of the uppermost ocean and sea surface. There isn’t time for the heat to mix deeper and now it can’t because the upper layer has become too density stratified and the mixed layer has thinned so much that the warm water remains largely trapped in the uppermost layer including the sea surface.
We will soon get the data from 2025 showing just how much the heat uptake has continued to shift to the uppermost layer, specifically the upper 300 meter layer (general data for the upper 2,000 meters is already available and that was used to calculate the 2025 ocean heat uptake). This will allow us to more accurately predict how much more rapid atmospheric warming will soon get. But we already know the warming rate will be far above the most recent predictions.
IMO we are now looking at more than 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) of global average atmospheric 2 meter height warming by about 2030 over the 1880-1920 baseline, possibly even an astounding though now realistic 4 degrees C ( 7.2 degrees F) depending on whether the now expected Super El Niño (already occasionally producing + 6 degree C (+ 10.8 F) subsurface temperature anomalies in parts of the equatorial Pacific) with potentially record shattering intensity fully materializes over 2026, much more than 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F) by 2040, possibly 6 degrees C (10.8 degrees F) soaring to ~10 degrees C thereafter.
Warming is now surprisingly fast because we vastly underestimated how fast the feedback cascade would come and how profoundly many of the feedbacks compound each other. IMO the net result of all foreseeable feedbacks including unsurvivable dew point temperatures, increased storminess, catastrophic floods as well as droughts, water shortages, crop failures, famine, disease, loss of other species, ecosystem collapse, rising economic inequality, political unrest, social breakdown, wars over disappearing resources, go…
We have opened Pandora’s box and there is no going back. We must immediately and drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to have any hope of curtailing the worst impacts. The longer we delay the more hopeless it will be.
None of the really extreme climate impacts we've been seeing were ever forecast. Any of the optimistic messaging is based on woefully underestimated numbers. We are entering hell with no off ramp.
#kissyourassgoodbye
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