00:00We're covering two stories on climate in the news today, starting with the record carbon dioxide levels experienced in 2024.
00:08And then we'll talk about a warm blob of water in the northern Pacific Ocean.
00:12Brett, our first story is from ABC News, and the World Meteorological Organization has released the report showing that 2024 had the highest levels of carbon dioxide on record.
00:22Yeah, once again, another record being set. Again, this is the highest CO2, atmospheric CO2, globally, the past 800,000 years.
00:32We are also 50% higher in the atmospheric CO2 before the Industrial Revolution.
00:38The key factor here, though, is growth rates. The amount of increase in CO2 each from year to year, three times higher today than they were in the 1960s.
00:48Certainly a concerning trend there. CO2, as we talked about here on Climate in the News before, one of the most important greenhouse gases in terms of trapping heat in the atmosphere and causing climate change.
01:00The carbon doesn't just get emitted, though, by humans. It also can be put into sinks, so it can be sort of trapped and taken out of the atmosphere. In what ways does that happen?
01:08Yeah, the Amazon acts as a sink. It absorbs a lot of CO2, a quarter of the total amount. But again, we're seeing a deforestation in the Amazon forest, which is certainly going to limit that.
01:19And then the oceans are warming, and this will lead into our next story. But the oceans are warming still, and a warmer ocean is not able to efficiently take up as much CO2 as a cooler ocean.
01:29So you mentioned oceans, Brett, and that will turn us to our second story from the BBC about this mystery heat wave, a warm blob of water in the northern Pacific Ocean, and again, the warmest on record, another record being set.
01:41Yeah, another marine heat wave getting very common here worldwide. This one is extremely large, 10 times the size of the Mediterranean, Dan, this summer.
01:50Again, half a degree warmer than previous record setback in 2022. And again, significant warming in the North Pacific from July through September over the past 25 years, especially.
02:01So what types of causes do they attribute this heat wave to?
02:04Well, it could be, again, climate change, of course, is one main thing. But looking at this summer in particular, wind speeds were lighter, so less mixing of the ocean, mixing of colder water up to the surface.
02:16That's one. Also, a change in shipping fuels. We're seeing less fuel usage of sulfur-based fuels, which, again, sulfur particles cause more reflection of the sun's energy back to space.
02:30So when you lose that, more sun's energy can absorb.
02:33So that's really better for our health, that lack of sulfur, but can contribute to the warming, and the impacts can be felt of these heat waves can be felt around the world.
02:40Yes, United States, Canada, North America. But in this article, we talk about Europe, all the way over to Europe, seeing colder starts to winters across Europe.
02:49But the tail end of winters tend to be warmer and wetter.
02:53So certainly a broad impact here, how it's all tied together from the CO2 to the warm waters in the North Pacific.
02:59Thanks, Brett, for that insight. For other stories about climate, you can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
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