New reports from the U.K. say climate change is altering oceans
Apparently British researchers didn’t get the memo about pretending climate change is no big deal. Two new ocean-related reports say the U.K. is getting hit hard, and predict scarier stuff to come. The government-convened Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership points to surface temperature and sea level rises, storm severity increases, and changes in the distribution of critters from plankton to seabirds. “Rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, and melting polar ice are not just predictions, they are happening now,” says Climate Change Minister Ian Pearson. (Ooh, we want a climate-change minister!) At the same time, a team of researchers from two British universities says the north Atlantic is storing heat that could be released into the atmosphere, causing more warming than previously thought. Still, says scientist James Lovelock, “We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don’t see the species dying out.” See, there’s always a silver lining.
