Ocean slowing warming, researcher says

Byline: Jonathan Ng, Feb 4, 2008. Daily Utah Chronicle

Instead of obsessing about the roots and causes of global warming, the public should focus on the role the ocean plays in climate change and how bodies of water can act as heat regulators, said Marcia McNutt.

Marcia K. McNutt, president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, gave a lecture -- "Changing Climate: It's All About the Oceans." -- in the Skaggs Auditorium on Jan. 30. Photo Credit: Teresa

McNutt, who is the president and CEO of the Monteray Bay Aquarium Research Institute, talked about the correlations between the changing climate and the oceans in the Aline Wilmot Skaggs Auditorium on Wednesday. The institute, where she has worked for more than 10 years, is the "NASA of the oceans," she said, where among other things, researchers develop real-time ways to monitor events in the oceans. During the lecture, McNutt said even though oceans comprise 71 percent of the planet and 97 percent of the Earth's surface, it is easy for the public to be consumed by issues of climate change and possible theories that might impact global warming without thinking about how climate change and the oceans affect each other.

Oceans are the largest modulators of global climate change and in turn, they are critically impacted by long-term changes in the weather, she said. The burning of fossil fuels is releasing too much carbon dioxide and increasing the green house effect, which is warming the planet. However, if it weren't for the oceans, climate change would affect the Earth in a larger way, McNutt said.
"The fact that we haven't seen more warming up to the present is thanks to the oceans," McNutt said.
The oceans are huge regulators of heat, as they move around the surface of the planet and have absorbed 30 times more heat than the atmosphere since 1955.
"So, next time you go outside and don't feel baked on a hot summer day, say, 'Thank you, ocean,' because this is what's keeping global warming from being worse than it is," McNutt said.
A common misconception is that melting ice is responsible for the rising sea levels. However, that contributes about half as much to rising sea level as thermal expansion, McNutt said. Because of the burning of fossil fuels, the oceans are absorbing one million tons of carbon dioxide per hour, causing the oceans to be more acidic. This issue is the main focus of the research, to discover how ocean ecosystems will adapt to higher acidity and even impact the possible extinctions of fish and plants.
Fifty percent of the oxygen humans breathe comes from the plants in the ocean, which is another reason the public should be concerned about the oceans, McNutt said. Later this year, the institute will conduct an experiment where researchers will enclose a space underwater and control the acidic level of the water in that space -- allowing organisms to come and go -- to see how they interact with the acidity.
"This stuff is really important to me, and the ocean perspective was something that I've never heard before," said Hailey Allen, a senior in biology. "The biggest thing I think is reducing CO2 emissions. So, don't drive your car, if preventable," Allen said.
The lecture was the third of four in the Frontiers of Science lecture series. Jim Degooyer, a spokesperson for the College of Science, said the goal of these series is to bring world-renowned scientists from across the country to Salt Lake City and provide a public lecture that's accessible to a wide audience and involves the larger community in the scientific frontiers that are happening right now.