Claims that climate change is natural are inconsistent with new oceanic temperature trends, signal associated with human activities.
Claims that climate change is natural are inconsistent with new oceanic temperature trends, signal associated with human activities.
Woods Hole, Mass. — New oceanic research provides clear evidence of a human “fingerprint” on climate change and shows that specific signals from human activities have altered the seasonal cycle amplitude of sea surface temperatures (SST).
“This is breakthrough evidence that there is a human-caused climate change signal in ocean temperatures associated with CO2 increases,” according to co-author Benjamin Santer, an adjunct scientist and distinguished scholar in the Physical Oceanography Department at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI).
“We show that a human-caused signal in the seasonal cycle of sea surface temperature (SST) has emerged from the noise of natural variability. Geographical patterns of changes in SST seasonal cycle amplitude (SSTAC) reveal two distinctive features: an increase at Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes related to mixed-layer depth changes, and a robust dipole pattern between 40˚S and 55˚S which is mainly driven by surface wind changes,” according to the journal article, “The emerging human influence on the seasonal cycle of sea surface temperature,” published in Nature Climate Change.
Read more at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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