Shifting Pattern

A massive swath of unusually warm water has settled off the coast of North America since early 2014. Ocean surface water temperatures are about 1° to 4° Celsius (2° to 7° Fahrenheit) above the mean.

"In the fall of 2013 and early 2014 we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn’t cool off as much as it usually did, so by spring of 2014 it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year."
— Nick Bond, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean

Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly, March 2015, NASA Earth Observatory

Significantly warmer ocean temperatures, dubbed "The Blob" by climate scientist Nick Bond, seem linked to weather anomalies across North America.

Scientists hypothesize that the persistently warmer ocean temperatures over the past 15 months could be causing a range of phenomena from stressing Northwest salmon and steelhead trout populations to supplying a pipeline of moisture that fed record-breaking East Coast snowstorms.

"Men argue. Nature acts."
― Voltaire (1694 – 1778)

Natural phenomena are often characterized as a continuous process, by a state of continuous change, or by evolutionary adaptations. As humans observing and collecting data from the world around us, we establish and recognize patterns that enable us to distinguish anomalous changes from expected changes.

Shifting patterns are a leading indicator of larger systemic changes that demand our attention.

"Are humans any smarter than frogs in a pot? If you put a frog in a pot and slowly turn up the heat, it won't jump out. Instead, it will enjoy the nice warm bath until it is cooked to death. We humans seem to be doing pretty much the same thing."
— Jeff Goodell

REFERENCES

• Unusual North Pacific warmth jostles marine food chain, by Michael Milstein, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, September 2014.
• ‘Warm blob’ in Pacific Ocean linked to weird weather across the U.S., by Hannah Hickey, UW Today, 9 April 2015.
• West Coast waters shifting to lower productivity regime, NOAA report, 17 April 2015.

The Anthropocene

Anthropocene word origin

Anthropocene is a 21st century term popularized by atmospheric chemist and nobel laureate Paul Crutzen for what will perhaps be recognized as a new geologic epoch.

The roots of the word are anthropo- for man and cene for new.

No date is recognized as the start of the Anthropocene, but atmospheric data seems to point to the early 19th century industrialization that occurred during the time of the Industrial Revolution. Other scientists indicate it should start with the Atomic Age of the 1950s.

The Anthropocene was preceded by, or is encompassed by, the Holocene which, in turn, was preceded by the Pleistocene

The Holocene began about 11,700 years ago and includes the growth of the human species. The Pleistocene lasted from about 2,588,000 to the Holocene and spanned the most recent period of repeated glaciations.

Shanghai at sunset

The Anthropocene is marked by the characteristics of:

• over-population (fourfold increase in the 20th century alone);
• the greenhouse effect;
• warming temperatures;
• melting glaciers;
• rising sea levels;
• frequent weather extremes; and
• overall climate disruption.

All of these characteristics are widely held to be linked to human activities.

"Two billion years ago, cyanobacteria oxygenated the atmosphere and powerfully disrupted life on earth. But they didn’t know it. We’re the first species that’s become a planet-scale influence and is aware of that reality. That’s what distinguishes us."
— Andrew Revkin

REFERENCES

• Anthropocene, Wikipedia.
• Coping with the anthropocene: How we became nature, De Gruyter, ScienceDaily, 17 March 2015.
• What is the Anthropocene and Are We in It?, Smithsonian Magazine, January 2013.