Warmer seas, over-fishing spell disaster for oceans: scientists

Terra Daily ^ | 04/11/2008 | Staff Writers

[ConservativeMind]

Thanks for the post

I understand what you are saying here, but I have a few questions. How does “La Nina” change the global temperature? Would this not, at most, shift heat or cold from one place to another? How does “La Nina” make a net heat positive reaction across the globe? Are we just missing the source of the heat, possibly in the ocean where we aren’t able to measure it, as it’s pumped into areas which have temperature recording devices?

[cogitator]

Interesting about the La Nina but that makes my point, the oceans have cooled yet they are claiming they have warmed. Those little hot spots you mentioned haven't changed and they wouldn't make up for the amount of the cooling in the Indian Ocean alone anyhow.

I understand your interpretation, and all I point out is that a qualitative visual assessment is different than a quantitative data analysis. Your argument is with the data analysis and I don't have any particular insight on how they do it.

Take a look at this from GISTEMP (just for comparison purposes):

Monthly anomaly maps

My impression comparing January 2008 to March 2008 is that the cooler areas have faded a bit (less cool), and the warm anomalies are more widespread, particularly in the Atlantic. I'm surprised by the land anomaly but it's clearly dominated by the Asian landmass. But in their analysis the March 2008 anomaly is not as large as either December 2006 or January 2007. And this really IS Hansen's data. (Note the difference between January 2007 and January 2008).

[cogitator]

How does “La Nina” change the global temperature? Would this not, at most, shift heat or cold from one place to another?

The cool ocean waters cool off the air above them, and this cooler air then moves over land. When referring to the "global temperature", this most frequently refers to a combined land-ocean product. I think that the ocean air temperatures are derived from buoys and floats -- not sure.

The cooler waters come from depth, basically a shallower thermocline coming to the surface. So it's not a matter of just shifting cold at the surface. It's an actual cooling factor.

How does “La Nina” make a net heat positive reaction across the globe?

I'm not sure what you're asking; I might have explained it above.

Are we just missing the source of the heat, possibly in the ocean where we aren’t able to measure it, as it’s pumped into areas which have temperature recording devices?

What do you mean by the "source of the heat"?