NATIONALIZE BIG PHARMA
Pharmaceutical trade group sues US over Medicare drug price negotiation plans
Wed, June 21, 2023
By Patrick Wingrove
NEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) - The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the leading industry lobby group, and two other organizations on Wednesday said they were suing the U.S. government to block enforcement of a program that gives Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.
In a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas, PhRMA along with the National Infusion Center Association and the Global Colon Cancer Association, which counts PhRMA and some drug companies as members, said the drug price negotiation program was unconstitutional.
This marks the fourth lawsuit challenging the law, which is part of President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), after separate legal challenges by Merck & Co, Bristol Myers Squibb, and the influential business group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The pharmaceutical industry claims negotiating prices of its products with the government health plan for Americans age 65 and older will curtail profits and compel them to pull back on developing groundbreaking new treatments.
PhRMA represents many of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, including Merck and Bristol Myers.
Americans pay more for prescription medicines than any other country. The Biden administration's drug pricing reform aims to save $25 billion annually by 2031 through price negotiations for the drugs most costly to Medicare.
The latest lawsuit argues that the "unrestrained authority" given to the Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) by Congress conflicts with the United States' separation-of-power principle.
"Congress took a series of unconstitutional shortcuts, giving the executive branch the open ended task of replacing market based prices in Medicare with an entirely new set of prices at the (Medicare) agency's own choosing," PhRMA general counsel James Stansel said at a press conference.
The lawsuit also contends that the price negotiation program violates the U.S. Constitution's Eight Amendment, which protects against excessive fines, and Fifth Amendment by exempting key decisions from public input.
PhRMA and the other two groups are seeking an injunction against the price caps and a declaration that the IRA's price negotiation is unconstitutional.
The negotiations are scheduled to start in September after the agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid releases its list of 10 costly drugs initially selected for the process, with the agreed prices taking effect in 2026.
The suits challenging the plan have been filed in four different federal courts, with Merck's in Washington, D.C., the Chamber of Commerce in Ohio and Bristol Myers' in New Jersey.
In response to the previous lawsuits, the White House said there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prevents Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices.
A spokesperson for HHS on Wednesday said the law is on its side.
“As the (HHS) secretary has already made clear, we will vigorously defend the president’s drug price negotiation law, which is already helping to lower healthcare costs for seniors and people with disabilities." (Reporting by Patrick Wingrove and Michael Erman; Editing by Mark Porter and Bill Berkrot)
Thursday, June 22, 2023
"Women bear the biggest brunt of climate change,’ says climate scientist Susan Chomba
Neha Wadekar in Baringo county, Kenya
Neha Wadekar in Baringo county, Kenya
THE GUARDIAN
Wed, June 21, 2023
Susan Chomba glares out the window of the Prado Land Cruiser at dozens of motorcycles speeding in the opposite direction. Each motorcycle carries at least five bags of charcoal and for every bag, at least three medium-sized acacia trees must be chopped down and burned. Charcoal production is banned in Kenya, but is still widely used for domestic heat and cooking.
Chomba loves trees. She can rattle off the scientific and local names of countless species and detail their ideal growing conditions. She holds a PhD in forest governance and master’s degrees in agriculture development and agroforestry. She is director of food, land and water programs, continent-wide, at the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global environmental research non-profit. She manages a portfolio of $20m and a staff of 100.
She is a rarity.
Roughly 12% of the world’s top climate scientists are women and fewer than one percent are from Africa – a continent hard hit by climate change. “If you look at the way the world operates, it’s almost blind to the fact that women bear the biggest burden and brunt of climate change,” Chomba says. That Chomba is an African woman in such a key role is potentially revolutionary, especially because she goes out of her way to solicit the views of those most affected and often most unheard – local farmers, community elders and, notably, women.
“The way climate is seen in the world, it’s seen very much from a masculine perspective,” Chomba says. For example, while male climate scientists focus heavily on developing renewable sources of energy to replace fossil fuels like oil and gas, Chomba believes they pay far less attention to the hundreds of millions of women worldwide who are burning wood for tasks like cooking. Incorporating the perspectives of women – particularly poor, rural women – would better ensure comprehensive solutions, she says.
Chomba is 40 years old but still remembers the hunger pangs she suffered as a child when the land failed to yield enough food for her family. More people, most likely women and children, will suffer the same fate, or worse, if wise and profound changes aren’t made soon.
Today, she is traveling with a team of WRI experts from Nairobi to Baringo county in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, home to mountainous forests that supply 75% of Kenya’s water. But the expansion of agriculture into previously natural environments, deforestation for charcoal and logging, urbanization and climate change have ravaged the land, leaving it thirsty and bare. Locals say they haven’t had a yield of maize or beans, their staple crops, in three years.
Chomba and her team visit a giant gully that has split the ground into two in the middle of the farmland. The area has been overharvested and overgrazed, with few natural grasses or indigenous trees left to hold the soil together. That, combined with climate change and an intense dry season, has left the earth looking like parched, cracked skin.
An elderly farmer points to a tree and says cooking oil can be extracted from the native species.
“How can we do this through the Terrafund?” Chomba asks her team, referring to the WRI’s lending program to support businesses addressing land degradation and restoration. “We have a muze [an elder] with knowledge, a fund that wants to invest and a place that needs seedlings.”
There’s an urgent need for community-driven ideas, but hasty, half-baked “solutions” can exacerbate harm, Chomba argues on the drive to Baringo county. At the end of last year, for example, Kenya’s newly-elected president, William Ruto, announced his intention to plant 15bn trees in Kenya by 2032. But Chomba says the plan fails to specify which species will be planted (native or foreign), where they will be planted (forest reserves or communal farms), why they will be planted (for timber, carbon, fruit, or soil fertility), and who will actually grow them.
“The devil is in the details, and that’s lacking,” Chomba says. “If you don’t address deforestation causes, forget about your tree planting. It’s useless.”
Chomba grew up in Kirinyaga county in central Kenya, where her mother cultivated a small plot of land owned by a step-uncle. Chomba’s mother grew capsicum and french beans and formed cooperatives with other farmers so they could pool their products for export. Because her mother was a single parent and was always working, Chomba was largely raised by her grandmother.
“She used to tell me that if she could have gone to school, she would have studied so much that knowledge would be smoking out of her nostrils,” Chomba says. “She made sure that I knew that education was my only path out of poverty, out of the life we had back then.”
When Chomba was nine, her mother wanted to send her to a local boarding school, but the admissions staff in Kirinyaga took one look at her shabby clothes and turned her down.
“I’m not ashamed of my childhood poverty,” Chomba says today. “It’s what propelled me back then and what makes me sensitive to-date.”
Instead, Chomba traveled alone on a bus to a different boarding school in Western Kenya. A few years later, when Chomba’s mother ran out of money, Chomba returned to the provincial high school in Kirinyaga. Each student was given their own small patch of land to farm, and Chomba grew cabbage because they thrived in Kirinyaga’s cold climate. She experimented with organic farming, opting to use garlic and blackjack instead of chemical pesticides.
Chomba flashes a broad smile: “My cabbages were absolutely massive.”
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Kenyans were pushing back against the dictator Daniel Arap Moi, Wangari Maathai was pressing for forest conservation and fighting for multiparty democracy. Maathai, the first African woman to win a Nobel peace prize, inspired a generation of young, female Kenyan environmentalists.
“We just admired Professor Wangari,” Chomba says. “She taught us that nature belongs to all of us.”
Chomba wanted to study law, but she missed the university cut off by a single point. Her second choice was agricultural economics, but by a strange twist of fate, she was placed in a forestry course. It wasn’t until her third year, when Chomba took an agroforestry class, that she realized she had found her calling.
“The gods chose my life for me,” she says.
While Maathai was protesting in the streets, Chomba chose another path more aligned to her strengths – research.
“I have a lot of respect for activism, I think we need activism,” Chomba says. But she opted instead for a job that relies on evidence-based data as the basis to change systemic structures.
Chomba joined the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and led an eight-country land restoration program, called “Regreening Africa,” which restored one million hectares of Africa’s degraded lands. By now a single parent, Chomba had to leave her son at home with her mother to pursue dual master’s degrees in Europe.
“[S]he had to really fight,” says Tom Vandenbosch, one of Chomba’s first mentors at ICRAF. “Her having a young son when she had to move to Europe to finish her studies – that’s not something which is so easy to do.”
Chomba returned to ICRAF as a climate change researcher advising some of the brightest diplomatic minds in Africa convened to tackle climate change at the Conference of Peoples (COP). Chomba called it “the most humbling space I ever occupied as a young researcher,” and says the job “touched the social justice part of my soul.”
This experience convinced Chomba to get her PhD at the University of Copenhagen.
Chomba married her husband in 2009 and gave birth to their son in 2010. Both her sons seem interested in the environment, but “kids never do what their parents want them to do”, Chomba admits.
Chomba’s team pulls up to the Baringo county government offices after a five-hour drive, enters a tiny office and crams around a table occupied by local officials. She will need their staff, resources and approval to operate in the county.
She strategically mentions budget numbers for Terrafund and as she utters the amount set aside for the Greater Rift Valley region – $6m – the officials straighten up, their interest piqued.
But challenges remain. Chomba broaches the issue of illegal charcoal production. One government official waives aside her concerns, citing Kenya’s struggling economy. “They are selling charcoal because they have no other option,” he says.
Chomba rolls her eyes.
The following morning, Chomba spends hours in the stifling heat speaking with women who are part of a grassroots gender-empowerment cooperative. Florence Lomariwo fled her home as a child to escape female genital cutting and child marriage and became a college-educated teacher. She describes how the drought is causing armed clashes between male herders, who are ranging farther from home to graze and water their livestock. Left alone, women are bearing the brunt of this.
“Most of the women are suffering deaths because of lack of water,” Lomariwo says. “For our family to survive, a woman [must] travel, even if it is 100km.”
Monicah Aluku, a 37-year-old widow, speaks up.
“Feel our pain,” she says. “There is no water. Women are walking so far to get water that they are miscarrying. There is no healthcare system. Kids are drinking dirty water and getting typhoid. We are really suffering.”
Chomba leans forward. She nods intently with a serious, steady gaze. Chomba and her team were scheduled to head back to Nairobi around 1pm, but they don’t leave until hours later. And only after Chomba has heard from every woman in the room.
This story was produced by the Fuller Project, a global newsroom dedicated to groundbreaking reporting that catalyzes positive change for women
Wed, June 21, 2023
Susan Chomba glares out the window of the Prado Land Cruiser at dozens of motorcycles speeding in the opposite direction. Each motorcycle carries at least five bags of charcoal and for every bag, at least three medium-sized acacia trees must be chopped down and burned. Charcoal production is banned in Kenya, but is still widely used for domestic heat and cooking.
Chomba loves trees. She can rattle off the scientific and local names of countless species and detail their ideal growing conditions. She holds a PhD in forest governance and master’s degrees in agriculture development and agroforestry. She is director of food, land and water programs, continent-wide, at the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global environmental research non-profit. She manages a portfolio of $20m and a staff of 100.
She is a rarity.
Roughly 12% of the world’s top climate scientists are women and fewer than one percent are from Africa – a continent hard hit by climate change. “If you look at the way the world operates, it’s almost blind to the fact that women bear the biggest burden and brunt of climate change,” Chomba says. That Chomba is an African woman in such a key role is potentially revolutionary, especially because she goes out of her way to solicit the views of those most affected and often most unheard – local farmers, community elders and, notably, women.
“The way climate is seen in the world, it’s seen very much from a masculine perspective,” Chomba says. For example, while male climate scientists focus heavily on developing renewable sources of energy to replace fossil fuels like oil and gas, Chomba believes they pay far less attention to the hundreds of millions of women worldwide who are burning wood for tasks like cooking. Incorporating the perspectives of women – particularly poor, rural women – would better ensure comprehensive solutions, she says.
Chomba is 40 years old but still remembers the hunger pangs she suffered as a child when the land failed to yield enough food for her family. More people, most likely women and children, will suffer the same fate, or worse, if wise and profound changes aren’t made soon.
Today, she is traveling with a team of WRI experts from Nairobi to Baringo county in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, home to mountainous forests that supply 75% of Kenya’s water. But the expansion of agriculture into previously natural environments, deforestation for charcoal and logging, urbanization and climate change have ravaged the land, leaving it thirsty and bare. Locals say they haven’t had a yield of maize or beans, their staple crops, in three years.
Chomba and her team visit a giant gully that has split the ground into two in the middle of the farmland. The area has been overharvested and overgrazed, with few natural grasses or indigenous trees left to hold the soil together. That, combined with climate change and an intense dry season, has left the earth looking like parched, cracked skin.
An elderly farmer points to a tree and says cooking oil can be extracted from the native species.
“How can we do this through the Terrafund?” Chomba asks her team, referring to the WRI’s lending program to support businesses addressing land degradation and restoration. “We have a muze [an elder] with knowledge, a fund that wants to invest and a place that needs seedlings.”
There’s an urgent need for community-driven ideas, but hasty, half-baked “solutions” can exacerbate harm, Chomba argues on the drive to Baringo county. At the end of last year, for example, Kenya’s newly-elected president, William Ruto, announced his intention to plant 15bn trees in Kenya by 2032. But Chomba says the plan fails to specify which species will be planted (native or foreign), where they will be planted (forest reserves or communal farms), why they will be planted (for timber, carbon, fruit, or soil fertility), and who will actually grow them.
“The devil is in the details, and that’s lacking,” Chomba says. “If you don’t address deforestation causes, forget about your tree planting. It’s useless.”
***
Chomba grew up in Kirinyaga county in central Kenya, where her mother cultivated a small plot of land owned by a step-uncle. Chomba’s mother grew capsicum and french beans and formed cooperatives with other farmers so they could pool their products for export. Because her mother was a single parent and was always working, Chomba was largely raised by her grandmother.
“She used to tell me that if she could have gone to school, she would have studied so much that knowledge would be smoking out of her nostrils,” Chomba says. “She made sure that I knew that education was my only path out of poverty, out of the life we had back then.”
When Chomba was nine, her mother wanted to send her to a local boarding school, but the admissions staff in Kirinyaga took one look at her shabby clothes and turned her down.
“I’m not ashamed of my childhood poverty,” Chomba says today. “It’s what propelled me back then and what makes me sensitive to-date.”
Instead, Chomba traveled alone on a bus to a different boarding school in Western Kenya. A few years later, when Chomba’s mother ran out of money, Chomba returned to the provincial high school in Kirinyaga. Each student was given their own small patch of land to farm, and Chomba grew cabbage because they thrived in Kirinyaga’s cold climate. She experimented with organic farming, opting to use garlic and blackjack instead of chemical pesticides.
Chomba flashes a broad smile: “My cabbages were absolutely massive.”
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Kenyans were pushing back against the dictator Daniel Arap Moi, Wangari Maathai was pressing for forest conservation and fighting for multiparty democracy. Maathai, the first African woman to win a Nobel peace prize, inspired a generation of young, female Kenyan environmentalists.
“We just admired Professor Wangari,” Chomba says. “She taught us that nature belongs to all of us.”
Chomba wanted to study law, but she missed the university cut off by a single point. Her second choice was agricultural economics, but by a strange twist of fate, she was placed in a forestry course. It wasn’t until her third year, when Chomba took an agroforestry class, that she realized she had found her calling.
“The gods chose my life for me,” she says.
While Maathai was protesting in the streets, Chomba chose another path more aligned to her strengths – research.
“I have a lot of respect for activism, I think we need activism,” Chomba says. But she opted instead for a job that relies on evidence-based data as the basis to change systemic structures.
Chomba joined the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and led an eight-country land restoration program, called “Regreening Africa,” which restored one million hectares of Africa’s degraded lands. By now a single parent, Chomba had to leave her son at home with her mother to pursue dual master’s degrees in Europe.
“[S]he had to really fight,” says Tom Vandenbosch, one of Chomba’s first mentors at ICRAF. “Her having a young son when she had to move to Europe to finish her studies – that’s not something which is so easy to do.”
Chomba returned to ICRAF as a climate change researcher advising some of the brightest diplomatic minds in Africa convened to tackle climate change at the Conference of Peoples (COP). Chomba called it “the most humbling space I ever occupied as a young researcher,” and says the job “touched the social justice part of my soul.”
This experience convinced Chomba to get her PhD at the University of Copenhagen.
Chomba married her husband in 2009 and gave birth to their son in 2010. Both her sons seem interested in the environment, but “kids never do what their parents want them to do”, Chomba admits.
***
Chomba’s team pulls up to the Baringo county government offices after a five-hour drive, enters a tiny office and crams around a table occupied by local officials. She will need their staff, resources and approval to operate in the county.
She strategically mentions budget numbers for Terrafund and as she utters the amount set aside for the Greater Rift Valley region – $6m – the officials straighten up, their interest piqued.
But challenges remain. Chomba broaches the issue of illegal charcoal production. One government official waives aside her concerns, citing Kenya’s struggling economy. “They are selling charcoal because they have no other option,” he says.
Chomba rolls her eyes.
***
The following morning, Chomba spends hours in the stifling heat speaking with women who are part of a grassroots gender-empowerment cooperative. Florence Lomariwo fled her home as a child to escape female genital cutting and child marriage and became a college-educated teacher. She describes how the drought is causing armed clashes between male herders, who are ranging farther from home to graze and water their livestock. Left alone, women are bearing the brunt of this.
“Most of the women are suffering deaths because of lack of water,” Lomariwo says. “For our family to survive, a woman [must] travel, even if it is 100km.”
Monicah Aluku, a 37-year-old widow, speaks up.
“Feel our pain,” she says. “There is no water. Women are walking so far to get water that they are miscarrying. There is no healthcare system. Kids are drinking dirty water and getting typhoid. We are really suffering.”
Chomba leans forward. She nods intently with a serious, steady gaze. Chomba and her team were scheduled to head back to Nairobi around 1pm, but they don’t leave until hours later. And only after Chomba has heard from every woman in the room.
This story was produced by the Fuller Project, a global newsroom dedicated to groundbreaking reporting that catalyzes positive change for women
Hurricanes push heat deeper into the ocean than scientists realized, boosting long-term ocean warming, new research shows
Sally Warner, Associate Professor of Climate Science, Brandeis University
How hurricanes draw energy from the ocean’s heat. Kelvin Ma via Wikimedia, CC BY
When hurricanes mix heat into the ocean, that heat doesn’t just resurface in the same place. We showed how underwater waves produced by the storm can push the heat roughly four times deeper than mixing alone, sending it to a depth where the heat is trapped far from the surface. From there, deep sea currents can transport it thousands of miles. A hurricane that travels across the western Pacific Ocean and hits the Philippines could end up supplying warm water that heats up the coast of Ecuador years later.
At sea, looking for typhoons
For two months in the fall of 2018, we lived aboard the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson to record how the Philippine Sea responded to changing weather patterns. As ocean scientists, we study turbulent mixing in the ocean and hurricanes and other tropical storms that generate this turbulence.
Skies were clear and winds were calm during the first half of our experiment. But in the second half, three major typhoons – as hurricanes are known in this part of the world – stirred up the ocean.
Microstructure profilers are used to measure ocean turbulence. This one is designed and built by the Ocean Mixing Group at Oregon State University. Sally Warner
That shift allowed us to directly compare the ocean’s motions with and without the influence of the storms. In particular, we were interested in learning how turbulence below the ocean surface was helping transfer heat down into the deep ocean.
We measure ocean turbulence with an instrument called a microstructure profiler, which free-falls nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) and uses a probe similar to a phonograph needle to measure turbulent motions of the water.
What happens when a hurricane comes through
Imagine the tropical ocean before a hurricane passes over it. At the surface is a layer of warm water, warmer than 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), that is heated by the sun and extends roughly 160 feet (50 meters) below the surface. Below it are layers of colder water.
The temperature difference between the layers keeps the waters separated and virtually unable to affect each other. You can think of it like the division between the oil and vinegar in an unshaken bottle of salad dressing.
As a hurricane passes over the tropical ocean, its strong winds help stir the boundaries between the water layers, much like someone shaking the bottle of salad dressing. In the process, cold deep water is mixed up from below and warm surface water is mixed downward. This causes surface temperatures to cool, allowing the ocean to absorb heat more efficiently than usual in the days after a hurricane.
For over two decades, scientists have debated whether the warm waters that are mixed downward by hurricanes could heat ocean currents and thereby shape global climate patterns. At the heart of this question was whether hurricanes could pump heat deep enough so that it stays in the ocean for years.
These illustrations show what happens to ocean heat before, during, after and many months after a hurricane passes over the ocean. Sally Warner, CC BY-ND
By analyzing subsurface ocean measurements taken before and after three hurricanes, we found that underwater waves transport heat roughly four times deeper into the ocean than direct mixing during the hurricane. These waves, which are generated by the hurricane itself, transport the heat deep enough that it cannot be easily released back into the atmosphere.
Implications of heat in the deep ocean
Once this heat is picked up by large-scale ocean currents, it can be transported to distant parts of the ocean.
The heat injected by the typhoons we studied in the Philippine Sea may have flowed to the coasts of Ecuador or California, following current patterns that carry water from west to east across the equatorial Pacific.
At this point, the heat may be mixed back up to the surface by a combination of shoaling currents, upwelling and turbulent mixing. Once the heat is close to the surface again, it can warm the local climate and affect ecosystems.
For instance, coral reefs are particularly sensitive to extended periods of heat stress. El Niño events are the typical culprit behind coral bleaching in Ecuador, but the excess heat from the hurricanes that we observed may contribute to stressed reefs and bleached coral far from where the storms appeared.
Coral reefs are essential habitat for fish and other sea life, but they are threatened by rising ocean temperatures. James Watt via NOAA
It is also possible that the excess heat from hurricanes stays within the ocean for decades or more without returning to the surface. This would actually have a mitigating impact on climate change.
As hurricanes redistribute heat from the ocean surface to greater depths, they can help to slow down warming of the Earth’s atmosphere by keeping the heat sequestered in the ocean.
Scientists have long thought of hurricanes as extreme events fueled by ocean heat and shaped by the Earth’s climate. Our findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add a new dimension to this problem by showing that the interactions go both ways — hurricanes themselves have the ability to heat up the ocean and shape the Earth’s climate.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.
It was written by: Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela, University of California, San Diego and Sally Warner, Brandeis University.
Read more:
Atlantic hurricane season 2023: El Niño and extreme Atlantic Ocean heat are about to clash
Hurricane Ida turned into a monster thanks to a giant warm patch in the Gulf of Mexico – here’s what happened
Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela receives funding from the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT).
Sally Warner has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
Sally Warner, Associate Professor of Climate Science, Brandeis University
Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela, Ph.D. Candidate in Physical Oceanography,
University of California, San Diego
THE CONVERSATION
Tue, June 20, 2023
Satellite data illustrates the heat signature of Hurricane Maria above warm surface water in 2017. NASA
When a hurricane hits land, the destruction can be visible for years or even decades. Less obvious, but also powerful, is the effect hurricanes have on the oceans.
In a new study, we show through real-time measurements that hurricanes don’t just churn water at the surface. They can also push heat deep into the ocean in ways that can lock it up for years and ultimately affect regions far from the storm.
Heat is the key component of this story. It has long been known that hurricanes gain their energy from warm sea surface temperatures. This heat helps moist air near the ocean surface rise like a hot air balloon and form clouds taller than Mount Everest. This is why hurricanes generally form in tropical regions.
What we discovered is that hurricanes ultimately help warm the ocean, too, by enhancing its ability to absorb and store heat. And that can have far-reaching consequences.
Tue, June 20, 2023
Satellite data illustrates the heat signature of Hurricane Maria above warm surface water in 2017. NASA
When a hurricane hits land, the destruction can be visible for years or even decades. Less obvious, but also powerful, is the effect hurricanes have on the oceans.
In a new study, we show through real-time measurements that hurricanes don’t just churn water at the surface. They can also push heat deep into the ocean in ways that can lock it up for years and ultimately affect regions far from the storm.
Heat is the key component of this story. It has long been known that hurricanes gain their energy from warm sea surface temperatures. This heat helps moist air near the ocean surface rise like a hot air balloon and form clouds taller than Mount Everest. This is why hurricanes generally form in tropical regions.
What we discovered is that hurricanes ultimately help warm the ocean, too, by enhancing its ability to absorb and store heat. And that can have far-reaching consequences.
How hurricanes draw energy from the ocean’s heat. Kelvin Ma via Wikimedia, CC BY
When hurricanes mix heat into the ocean, that heat doesn’t just resurface in the same place. We showed how underwater waves produced by the storm can push the heat roughly four times deeper than mixing alone, sending it to a depth where the heat is trapped far from the surface. From there, deep sea currents can transport it thousands of miles. A hurricane that travels across the western Pacific Ocean and hits the Philippines could end up supplying warm water that heats up the coast of Ecuador years later.
At sea, looking for typhoons
For two months in the fall of 2018, we lived aboard the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson to record how the Philippine Sea responded to changing weather patterns. As ocean scientists, we study turbulent mixing in the ocean and hurricanes and other tropical storms that generate this turbulence.
Skies were clear and winds were calm during the first half of our experiment. But in the second half, three major typhoons – as hurricanes are known in this part of the world – stirred up the ocean.
Microstructure profilers are used to measure ocean turbulence. This one is designed and built by the Ocean Mixing Group at Oregon State University. Sally Warner
That shift allowed us to directly compare the ocean’s motions with and without the influence of the storms. In particular, we were interested in learning how turbulence below the ocean surface was helping transfer heat down into the deep ocean.
We measure ocean turbulence with an instrument called a microstructure profiler, which free-falls nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) and uses a probe similar to a phonograph needle to measure turbulent motions of the water.
What happens when a hurricane comes through
Imagine the tropical ocean before a hurricane passes over it. At the surface is a layer of warm water, warmer than 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), that is heated by the sun and extends roughly 160 feet (50 meters) below the surface. Below it are layers of colder water.
The temperature difference between the layers keeps the waters separated and virtually unable to affect each other. You can think of it like the division between the oil and vinegar in an unshaken bottle of salad dressing.
As a hurricane passes over the tropical ocean, its strong winds help stir the boundaries between the water layers, much like someone shaking the bottle of salad dressing. In the process, cold deep water is mixed up from below and warm surface water is mixed downward. This causes surface temperatures to cool, allowing the ocean to absorb heat more efficiently than usual in the days after a hurricane.
For over two decades, scientists have debated whether the warm waters that are mixed downward by hurricanes could heat ocean currents and thereby shape global climate patterns. At the heart of this question was whether hurricanes could pump heat deep enough so that it stays in the ocean for years.
These illustrations show what happens to ocean heat before, during, after and many months after a hurricane passes over the ocean. Sally Warner, CC BY-ND
By analyzing subsurface ocean measurements taken before and after three hurricanes, we found that underwater waves transport heat roughly four times deeper into the ocean than direct mixing during the hurricane. These waves, which are generated by the hurricane itself, transport the heat deep enough that it cannot be easily released back into the atmosphere.
Implications of heat in the deep ocean
Once this heat is picked up by large-scale ocean currents, it can be transported to distant parts of the ocean.
The heat injected by the typhoons we studied in the Philippine Sea may have flowed to the coasts of Ecuador or California, following current patterns that carry water from west to east across the equatorial Pacific.
At this point, the heat may be mixed back up to the surface by a combination of shoaling currents, upwelling and turbulent mixing. Once the heat is close to the surface again, it can warm the local climate and affect ecosystems.
For instance, coral reefs are particularly sensitive to extended periods of heat stress. El Niño events are the typical culprit behind coral bleaching in Ecuador, but the excess heat from the hurricanes that we observed may contribute to stressed reefs and bleached coral far from where the storms appeared.
Coral reefs are essential habitat for fish and other sea life, but they are threatened by rising ocean temperatures. James Watt via NOAA
It is also possible that the excess heat from hurricanes stays within the ocean for decades or more without returning to the surface. This would actually have a mitigating impact on climate change.
As hurricanes redistribute heat from the ocean surface to greater depths, they can help to slow down warming of the Earth’s atmosphere by keeping the heat sequestered in the ocean.
Scientists have long thought of hurricanes as extreme events fueled by ocean heat and shaped by the Earth’s climate. Our findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add a new dimension to this problem by showing that the interactions go both ways — hurricanes themselves have the ability to heat up the ocean and shape the Earth’s climate.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.
It was written by: Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela, University of California, San Diego and Sally Warner, Brandeis University.
Read more:
Atlantic hurricane season 2023: El Niño and extreme Atlantic Ocean heat are about to clash
Hurricane Ida turned into a monster thanks to a giant warm patch in the Gulf of Mexico – here’s what happened
Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela receives funding from the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT).
Sally Warner has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
‘The Atlantic is definitely on fire’: Unusually hot ocean sparks up early hurricane season
Alex Harris
On average, the tropical Atlantic is running about two degrees Celsius hotter than normal, or about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NOAA satellite data. And it happened fast.
Micheal Fischer, an assistant scientist with the University of Miami-NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, said that between April to June, the region (including the eastern Caribbean) warmed about 1.6 degrees Celsius. In a normal year, he said, it warms about 1 degree in that same time.
“That’s greater than anything we’ve seen over the last 40 years,” he said. “The Atlantic is definitely on fire.”
Many spots have flashed past an important benchmark that usually doesn’t happen until later in the season — 26.5 degrees Celsius, the threshold scientists use to determine whether water is warm enough to support a tropical storm or hurricane.
Kim Wood, an associate professor of meteorology at Mississippi State University, called the rate of rising sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic “mind-boggling.”
“We need a lot more than warm ocean water for [tropical cyclones] to form, and 26.5°C isn’t a hard-and-fast threshold, but seeing [sea surface temperatures] already exceed that value for so much of this region is... unusual, as many others have noted,” Wood tweeted.
And those pockets of abnormally hot water are already occupied. On Tuesday, the hurricane center was tracking both Tropical Storm Bret as well as another tropical wave close behind it. Hurricane models also had begun to hint at a third wave that could follow.
Why is it so hot?
The latest storm to form, Bret, is weird in several ways. For one, it’s way early.
Typically, the front half of hurricane season features storms that form in the Caribbean and spiral north. That flips around in late July or early August, when conditions line up for that infamous conveyor belt of tropical waves off Africa’s west coast. Some of those strengthen into tropical storms or hurricanes as they head west across the warming Atlantic.
Bret actually formed further to the east than any other early season named storm. Since 1850, only four previous storms have churned up east of the chain of Caribbean islands known as the Lesser Antilles in June.
Forecasters said the abnormally hot waters of the Atlantic could have definitely helped make that possible, but they aren’t the only factor.
“It’s a key ingredient but it’s not the only thing going on,” Fischer said.
Saharan Dust also tends to tamp down the tropics in the early summer. That cloud of loose dirt that floats off the west coast of Africa in the early summer typically slows or shuts down storm formation, blocking the sun and helping keep ocean waters cool. There’s less of that dust than usual this month.
There also are weaker than usual trade winds. Typically this time of year, a high-pressure system sits between Bermuda in the Azores, with a clockwise flow of air around it that helps cool the waters of the Atlantic.
“It’s fair to say the Atlantic has been unusually hospitable to tropical cyclone development this year,” Fischer said.
Satellite data show the tropical Atlantic ocean is almost three degrees Celsius hotter than normal, which could spark an active and early hurricane season.
Alex Harris
MIAMI HERALD
Tue, June 20, 2023
The Atlantic Ocean is hot right now. Hotter than it’s supposed to be for this time of year, and hot enough to worry scientists — particularly ones who monitor hurricanes.
Those higher-than-normal temperatures help explain why the National Hurricane Center’s tracking map on Tuesday looked a lot more like a snapshot from August than June. It shows two brewing systems east of the Lesser Antilles, including one that has already reached tropical storm strength, Bret. Named storms in June are rare and past ones have typically popped in the Gulf of Mexico or near the Atlantic coast.
That hot water is the prime suspect for the early season activity, but not the only one.
“There’s no doubt it’s related to the extra heat down there,” said Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist for WFLA in Tampa Bay. “We typically wouldn’t have water temperatures that are above the critical thresholds across wide swaths of the tropical Atlantic this early in the season.”
Some spots in the Atlantic are so unseasonably hot, they’re now running at temperatures usually seen in September — which is three, long hot summer months ahead.
Ben Noll, a meteorologist with the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, tweeted a map showing those spots, which include large swaths of the main development region, where Atlantic hurricanes usually form from waves rolling off the coast of Africa.
Tue, June 20, 2023
The Atlantic Ocean is hot right now. Hotter than it’s supposed to be for this time of year, and hot enough to worry scientists — particularly ones who monitor hurricanes.
Those higher-than-normal temperatures help explain why the National Hurricane Center’s tracking map on Tuesday looked a lot more like a snapshot from August than June. It shows two brewing systems east of the Lesser Antilles, including one that has already reached tropical storm strength, Bret. Named storms in June are rare and past ones have typically popped in the Gulf of Mexico or near the Atlantic coast.
That hot water is the prime suspect for the early season activity, but not the only one.
“There’s no doubt it’s related to the extra heat down there,” said Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist for WFLA in Tampa Bay. “We typically wouldn’t have water temperatures that are above the critical thresholds across wide swaths of the tropical Atlantic this early in the season.”
Some spots in the Atlantic are so unseasonably hot, they’re now running at temperatures usually seen in September — which is three, long hot summer months ahead.
Ben Noll, a meteorologist with the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, tweeted a map showing those spots, which include large swaths of the main development region, where Atlantic hurricanes usually form from waves rolling off the coast of Africa.
On average, the tropical Atlantic is running about two degrees Celsius hotter than normal, or about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NOAA satellite data. And it happened fast.
Micheal Fischer, an assistant scientist with the University of Miami-NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, said that between April to June, the region (including the eastern Caribbean) warmed about 1.6 degrees Celsius. In a normal year, he said, it warms about 1 degree in that same time.
“That’s greater than anything we’ve seen over the last 40 years,” he said. “The Atlantic is definitely on fire.”
Many spots have flashed past an important benchmark that usually doesn’t happen until later in the season — 26.5 degrees Celsius, the threshold scientists use to determine whether water is warm enough to support a tropical storm or hurricane.
Kim Wood, an associate professor of meteorology at Mississippi State University, called the rate of rising sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic “mind-boggling.”
“We need a lot more than warm ocean water for [tropical cyclones] to form, and 26.5°C isn’t a hard-and-fast threshold, but seeing [sea surface temperatures] already exceed that value for so much of this region is... unusual, as many others have noted,” Wood tweeted.
And those pockets of abnormally hot water are already occupied. On Tuesday, the hurricane center was tracking both Tropical Storm Bret as well as another tropical wave close behind it. Hurricane models also had begun to hint at a third wave that could follow.
Why is it so hot?
The latest storm to form, Bret, is weird in several ways. For one, it’s way early.
Typically, the front half of hurricane season features storms that form in the Caribbean and spiral north. That flips around in late July or early August, when conditions line up for that infamous conveyor belt of tropical waves off Africa’s west coast. Some of those strengthen into tropical storms or hurricanes as they head west across the warming Atlantic.
Bret actually formed further to the east than any other early season named storm. Since 1850, only four previous storms have churned up east of the chain of Caribbean islands known as the Lesser Antilles in June.
Forecasters said the abnormally hot waters of the Atlantic could have definitely helped make that possible, but they aren’t the only factor.
“It’s a key ingredient but it’s not the only thing going on,” Fischer said.
Saharan Dust also tends to tamp down the tropics in the early summer. That cloud of loose dirt that floats off the west coast of Africa in the early summer typically slows or shuts down storm formation, blocking the sun and helping keep ocean waters cool. There’s less of that dust than usual this month.
There also are weaker than usual trade winds. Typically this time of year, a high-pressure system sits between Bermuda in the Azores, with a clockwise flow of air around it that helps cool the waters of the Atlantic.
“It’s fair to say the Atlantic has been unusually hospitable to tropical cyclone development this year,” Fischer said.
Satellite data show the tropical Atlantic ocean is almost three degrees Celsius hotter than normal, which could spark an active and early hurricane season.
Uncertain season ahead
Despite the unseasonably hot waters, early forecasts from NOAA and others have called for a near-average hurricane season. That’s because of another massive weather phenomenon that is known to curtail storm activity — El Niño.
El Niño officially began earlier this month, and years with this weather pattern usually see fewer storms form in the Atlantic and more storm-shredding wind shear in the eastern Caribbean. That works directly against the storm-intensifying power of hotter oceans, leaving scientists with a lot of uncertainty about what this season may hold.
“We’re really in uncharted waters,” Fischer said.
And all of that is on top of the steadily building impact of climate change, which has already warmed tropical oceans by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1900s.
On Tuesday, NOAA noted that the ocean last month broke heat records, making it “virtually certain” that 2023 would end up in the top ten hottest years on record.
“This year shows us the potential of climate change,” Berardelli said. “When you take climate change and then on top of it you add natural factors that just happen to line up to create warm temperatures, you’re reaching extremes you’ve never reached in modern history.’
Despite the unseasonably hot waters, early forecasts from NOAA and others have called for a near-average hurricane season. That’s because of another massive weather phenomenon that is known to curtail storm activity — El Niño.
El Niño officially began earlier this month, and years with this weather pattern usually see fewer storms form in the Atlantic and more storm-shredding wind shear in the eastern Caribbean. That works directly against the storm-intensifying power of hotter oceans, leaving scientists with a lot of uncertainty about what this season may hold.
“We’re really in uncharted waters,” Fischer said.
And all of that is on top of the steadily building impact of climate change, which has already warmed tropical oceans by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1900s.
On Tuesday, NOAA noted that the ocean last month broke heat records, making it “virtually certain” that 2023 would end up in the top ten hottest years on record.
“This year shows us the potential of climate change,” Berardelli said. “When you take climate change and then on top of it you add natural factors that just happen to line up to create warm temperatures, you’re reaching extremes you’ve never reached in modern history.’
Ocean heat is off the charts – here's what that means for humans and ecosystems around the world
Annalisa Bracco, Professor of Ocean and Climate Dynamics, Georgia Institute of Technology
Wed, June 21, 2023
Sea surface temperatures are running well above the average since satellite monitoring began. The thick black line is 2023. The orange line is 2022. The 1982-2011 average is the middle dashed line. ClimateReanalyzer.org/NOAA OISST v2.1
El Niño is partly to blame. This climate phenomenon, now developing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, is characterized by warm waters in the central and eastern Pacific, which generally weakens the trade winds in the tropics. This weakening of those winds can affect oceans and land around the world.
But there are other forces at work on ocean temperatures.
Underlying everything is global warming – the continuing rising trend of sea surface and land temperatures for the past several decades as human activities have increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
The world just came off three straight years of La Niña – El Niño’s opposite, characterized by cooler waters rising in the equatorial Pacific. La Niña has a cooling effect globally that helps keep global sea surface temperatures in check but can also mask global warming. With that cooling effect turned off, the heat is increasingly evident.
Arctic sea ice was also unusually low in May and early June, and it may play a role. Losing ice cover can increase water temperatures, because dark open water absorbs solar radiation that white ice had reflected back into space.
These influences are playing out in various ways around the world.
The effects of extraordinary Atlantic heat
In early June 2023, I visited the NORCE climate center in Bergen, Norway, for two weeks to meet with other ocean scientists. The warm waters and mild winds across the eastern North Atlantic brought a long stretch of sunny, warm weather in a month when more than 70% of days normally would have been downpours.
The whole agricultural sector of Norway is now bracing for a drought as bad as the one in 2018, when yield was 40% below normal. Our train from Bergen to Oslo had a two-hour delay because the brakes of one car overheated and the 90 F (32 C) temperatures approaching the capital were too high to allow them to cool down.
Many scientists have speculated on the causes of the eastern North Atlantic’s unusually high temperatures, and several studies are underway.
Weakened winds caused the Azores high, a semi-permanent high pressure system over the Atlantic that affects Europe’s weather, to be especially weak and brought less dust from the Sahara over the ocean during the spring, which may have increased the amount of solar radiation reaching the water. A decrease in human-produced aerosol emissions in Europe and in the United States over the past few years – which has succeeded in improving air quality – may also have reduced the cooling effect such aerosols have.
A weakened monsoon in South Asia
In the Indian Ocean, El Niño tends to cause a warming of the water in April and May that can dampen the crucial Indian monsoon.
That may be happening – the monsoon was much weaker than normal from mid-May to mid-June 2023. That can be a problem for a large part of South Asia, where most of the agriculture is still rain-fed and depends heavily on the summer monsoon.
India saw sweltering temperatures in May and June 2023.
North American hurricane season up in the air
In the Atlantic, the weakening trade winds with El Niño tend to tamp down hurricane activity, but warm Atlantic temperatures can supercharge those storms. Whether the ocean heat, if it persists into fall, will override El Niño’s effects remains to be seen.
Risk of marine heat waves in South America
Marine heat waves can also have huge impacts on marine ecosystems, bleaching coral reefs and causing the death or movement of entire species. Coral-based ecosystems are nurseries for fish that provide food for 1 billion people around the world.
The reefs of the Galapagos Islands and those along the coastlines of Colombia, Panama and Ecuador are already at risk of severe bleaching and mortality from this year’s El Nino. Meanwhile, the Japan Sea and the eastern Mediterranean Sea are both losing their biodiversity to invasive species – giant jellyfish in Asia and lionfish in the Mediterranean – that can thrive in warmer waters.
These kinds of risks are increasing
Spring 2023 was exceptional, with several chaotic weather events accompanying the formation of El Niño and the exceptionally warmer temperatures in many parts of the world. At the same time, the warming of the oceans and atmosphere increase the chances for this kind of ocean warming.
To lower the risk, the world needs to reduce baseline warming by limiting excess greenhouse gas emissions, like fossil fuels, and move to a carbon-neutral planet. People will have to adapt to a warming climate in which extreme events are more likely and learn how to mitigate their impact.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.
It was written by: Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Read more:
El Niño is coming, and ocean temps are already at record highs – that can spell disaster for fish and corals
Coral reefs are dying as climate change decimates ocean ecosystems vital to fish and humans
Annalisa Bracco receives funding from NSF, NOAA, DOE.
Annalisa Bracco, Professor of Ocean and Climate Dynamics, Georgia Institute of Technology
Wed, June 21, 2023
THE CONVERSATION
The Indian Ocean's heat is having effects on land, too. NOAA Coral Reef Watch
Ocean temperatures have been off the charts since mid-March 2023, with the highest average levels in 40 years of satellite monitoring, and the impact is breaking through in disruptive ways around the world.
The sea of Japan is more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average. The Indian monsoon, closely tied to conditions in the warm Indian Ocean, has been well below its expected strength.
Spain, France, England and the whole Scandinavian Peninsula are also seeing rainfall far below normal, likely connected to an extraordinary marine heat wave in the eastern North Atlantic. Sea surface temperatures there have been 1.8 to 5 F (1 to 3 C) above average from the coast of Africa all the way to Iceland.
So, what’s going on?
The Indian Ocean's heat is having effects on land, too. NOAA Coral Reef Watch
Ocean temperatures have been off the charts since mid-March 2023, with the highest average levels in 40 years of satellite monitoring, and the impact is breaking through in disruptive ways around the world.
The sea of Japan is more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average. The Indian monsoon, closely tied to conditions in the warm Indian Ocean, has been well below its expected strength.
Spain, France, England and the whole Scandinavian Peninsula are also seeing rainfall far below normal, likely connected to an extraordinary marine heat wave in the eastern North Atlantic. Sea surface temperatures there have been 1.8 to 5 F (1 to 3 C) above average from the coast of Africa all the way to Iceland.
So, what’s going on?
Sea surface temperatures are running well above the average since satellite monitoring began. The thick black line is 2023. The orange line is 2022. The 1982-2011 average is the middle dashed line. ClimateReanalyzer.org/NOAA OISST v2.1
El Niño is partly to blame. This climate phenomenon, now developing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, is characterized by warm waters in the central and eastern Pacific, which generally weakens the trade winds in the tropics. This weakening of those winds can affect oceans and land around the world.
But there are other forces at work on ocean temperatures.
Underlying everything is global warming – the continuing rising trend of sea surface and land temperatures for the past several decades as human activities have increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
The world just came off three straight years of La Niña – El Niño’s opposite, characterized by cooler waters rising in the equatorial Pacific. La Niña has a cooling effect globally that helps keep global sea surface temperatures in check but can also mask global warming. With that cooling effect turned off, the heat is increasingly evident.
Arctic sea ice was also unusually low in May and early June, and it may play a role. Losing ice cover can increase water temperatures, because dark open water absorbs solar radiation that white ice had reflected back into space.
These influences are playing out in various ways around the world.
The effects of extraordinary Atlantic heat
In early June 2023, I visited the NORCE climate center in Bergen, Norway, for two weeks to meet with other ocean scientists. The warm waters and mild winds across the eastern North Atlantic brought a long stretch of sunny, warm weather in a month when more than 70% of days normally would have been downpours.
The whole agricultural sector of Norway is now bracing for a drought as bad as the one in 2018, when yield was 40% below normal. Our train from Bergen to Oslo had a two-hour delay because the brakes of one car overheated and the 90 F (32 C) temperatures approaching the capital were too high to allow them to cool down.
Many scientists have speculated on the causes of the eastern North Atlantic’s unusually high temperatures, and several studies are underway.
Weakened winds caused the Azores high, a semi-permanent high pressure system over the Atlantic that affects Europe’s weather, to be especially weak and brought less dust from the Sahara over the ocean during the spring, which may have increased the amount of solar radiation reaching the water. A decrease in human-produced aerosol emissions in Europe and in the United States over the past few years – which has succeeded in improving air quality – may also have reduced the cooling effect such aerosols have.
A weakened monsoon in South Asia
In the Indian Ocean, El Niño tends to cause a warming of the water in April and May that can dampen the crucial Indian monsoon.
That may be happening – the monsoon was much weaker than normal from mid-May to mid-June 2023. That can be a problem for a large part of South Asia, where most of the agriculture is still rain-fed and depends heavily on the summer monsoon.
India saw sweltering temperatures in May and June 2023.
Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
The Indian Ocean also saw an intense, slow-moving cyclone in the Arabian Sea this year that deprived land of moisture and rainfall for weeks. Studies suggest storms can sit for longer over warmer waters, gaining strength and pulling moisture to their core, and that can deprive surrounding land masses of water, increasing the risk of droughts, wildfires and marine heat waves.
The Indian Ocean also saw an intense, slow-moving cyclone in the Arabian Sea this year that deprived land of moisture and rainfall for weeks. Studies suggest storms can sit for longer over warmer waters, gaining strength and pulling moisture to their core, and that can deprive surrounding land masses of water, increasing the risk of droughts, wildfires and marine heat waves.
North American hurricane season up in the air
In the Atlantic, the weakening trade winds with El Niño tend to tamp down hurricane activity, but warm Atlantic temperatures can supercharge those storms. Whether the ocean heat, if it persists into fall, will override El Niño’s effects remains to be seen.
Risk of marine heat waves in South America
Marine heat waves can also have huge impacts on marine ecosystems, bleaching coral reefs and causing the death or movement of entire species. Coral-based ecosystems are nurseries for fish that provide food for 1 billion people around the world.
The reefs of the Galapagos Islands and those along the coastlines of Colombia, Panama and Ecuador are already at risk of severe bleaching and mortality from this year’s El Nino. Meanwhile, the Japan Sea and the eastern Mediterranean Sea are both losing their biodiversity to invasive species – giant jellyfish in Asia and lionfish in the Mediterranean – that can thrive in warmer waters.
These kinds of risks are increasing
Spring 2023 was exceptional, with several chaotic weather events accompanying the formation of El Niño and the exceptionally warmer temperatures in many parts of the world. At the same time, the warming of the oceans and atmosphere increase the chances for this kind of ocean warming.
To lower the risk, the world needs to reduce baseline warming by limiting excess greenhouse gas emissions, like fossil fuels, and move to a carbon-neutral planet. People will have to adapt to a warming climate in which extreme events are more likely and learn how to mitigate their impact.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.
It was written by: Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Read more:
El Niño is coming, and ocean temps are already at record highs – that can spell disaster for fish and corals
Coral reefs are dying as climate change decimates ocean ecosystems vital to fish and humans
Annalisa Bracco receives funding from NSF, NOAA, DOE.
‘Unprecedented’ ocean heat wave could linger through fall
Denise Chow
Wed, June 21, 2023
An intense marine heat wave that has fueled record-warm sea surface temperatures in the world’s oceans in recent months could linger well into the fall, according to an experimental forecast produced by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Researchers with the agency’s Physical Sciences Laboratory said unusually warm conditions in the North Atlantic are all but certain to last all summer, with an up to 90% chance that the marine heat wave will persist through November.
Members of the research team are set to host a public discussion later this week to unveil the new forecast and talk about its implications.
Dillon Amaya, a research scientist at NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory, called the situation in the North Atlantic “unprecedented,” adding that researchers have been trying to understand what is driving the current warm spell and its potential consequences.
“There’s only a few things that can cause the ocean to warm so much so quickly,” he said. “The main driver of ocean temperature changes like these are changes in the atmospheric circulation, and if you look at what the atmosphere has been doing over the North Atlantic in the last three months, you’ll see that the circulation has actually been fairly sluggish in that part of the world.”
Typically, there is a subtropical high-pressure system that sits over the North Atlantic that governs surface winds over that region of the planet. When those winds are weaker than normal, ocean temperatures tend to heat up, Amaya said.
But what is causing the weakening has been less clear, he added.
The consequences of such a prolonged warm spell have many scientists worried.
In addition to fueling extreme weather, warmer-than-usual ocean temperatures can accelerate the loss of polar ice, which in turn can exacerbate rising sea levels.
“This is a really startling global situation because the additional surface heating we see at this time will eventually be mixed into the ocean water column,” Craig Donlon, head of the European Space Agency's Earth Surfaces and Interior Section, said in a statement. “Some of this excess heat will find its way into the Arctic Ocean via ocean currents through the Fram Strait and Norwegian Sea further exacerbating the demise of Arctic sea ice.”
Thousands of dead fish washed ashore in Freeport, Texas on June 9, 2023.
Denise Chow
Wed, June 21, 2023
An intense marine heat wave that has fueled record-warm sea surface temperatures in the world’s oceans in recent months could linger well into the fall, according to an experimental forecast produced by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Researchers with the agency’s Physical Sciences Laboratory said unusually warm conditions in the North Atlantic are all but certain to last all summer, with an up to 90% chance that the marine heat wave will persist through November.
Members of the research team are set to host a public discussion later this week to unveil the new forecast and talk about its implications.
Dillon Amaya, a research scientist at NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory, called the situation in the North Atlantic “unprecedented,” adding that researchers have been trying to understand what is driving the current warm spell and its potential consequences.
“There’s only a few things that can cause the ocean to warm so much so quickly,” he said. “The main driver of ocean temperature changes like these are changes in the atmospheric circulation, and if you look at what the atmosphere has been doing over the North Atlantic in the last three months, you’ll see that the circulation has actually been fairly sluggish in that part of the world.”
Typically, there is a subtropical high-pressure system that sits over the North Atlantic that governs surface winds over that region of the planet. When those winds are weaker than normal, ocean temperatures tend to heat up, Amaya said.
But what is causing the weakening has been less clear, he added.
The consequences of such a prolonged warm spell have many scientists worried.
In addition to fueling extreme weather, warmer-than-usual ocean temperatures can accelerate the loss of polar ice, which in turn can exacerbate rising sea levels.
“This is a really startling global situation because the additional surface heating we see at this time will eventually be mixed into the ocean water column,” Craig Donlon, head of the European Space Agency's Earth Surfaces and Interior Section, said in a statement. “Some of this excess heat will find its way into the Arctic Ocean via ocean currents through the Fram Strait and Norwegian Sea further exacerbating the demise of Arctic sea ice.”
Thousands of dead fish washed ashore in Freeport, Texas on June 9, 2023.
(Darrell Schoppe / Cover Images via AP)
Marine heat waves can also affect the availability of food for sea creatures, alter migration patterns and devastate marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and fisheries.
Earlier this month, thousands of dead fish washed up on a Gulf Coast beach in a "fish kill" that officials linked to rising ocean temperatures that caused oxygen levels to plunge.
Scientists closely track changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean temperatures because both can influence local climates and extreme weather.
In a June 16 blog post, the United Kingdom’s Met Office, the country’s national weather service, said the record-breaking global sea surface temperatures were the result of “the classic combination of the underpinning of human-caused climate change with a layer of natural variation within the climate system on top.”
The European Space Agency said Tuesday that the waters off the coast of the U.K. and Ireland have been particularly warm, with parts of the North Sea nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) higher than normal for this time of year. Conditions in the Baltic Sea have been even more extreme, the agency said, with sea surface temperatures more than 14 degrees F (8 degrees C) warmer than average.
Oceans naturally absorb and store heat, which can make them important bellwethers of global warming. Studies have found that oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the heat trapped on Earth from greenhouse gas emissions since 1970.
Amaya said that it's too soon to tease out the specific fingerprints of climate change on this marine heat wave.
The return of El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern, also adds to concerns that the world’s oceans will remain exceptionally warm in the coming months.
El Niño occurs when changes in the strength or direction of trade winds cause waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean to become warmer than usual. These shifts have a strong influence on global temperatures and extreme weather, including rainfall, hurricanes and other severe storms.
Amaya said he hopes the new forecast will be a valuable tool to help the public better understand marine heat waves. He also said it's a unique opportunity for scientists to study the consequences of such a pronounced anomaly.
“I’m certainly not excited for the impacts,” he said, “but I’m excited and curious to learn more about what’s going on from an intellectual and scientific perspective.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Marine heat waves can also affect the availability of food for sea creatures, alter migration patterns and devastate marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and fisheries.
Earlier this month, thousands of dead fish washed up on a Gulf Coast beach in a "fish kill" that officials linked to rising ocean temperatures that caused oxygen levels to plunge.
Scientists closely track changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean temperatures because both can influence local climates and extreme weather.
In a June 16 blog post, the United Kingdom’s Met Office, the country’s national weather service, said the record-breaking global sea surface temperatures were the result of “the classic combination of the underpinning of human-caused climate change with a layer of natural variation within the climate system on top.”
The European Space Agency said Tuesday that the waters off the coast of the U.K. and Ireland have been particularly warm, with parts of the North Sea nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) higher than normal for this time of year. Conditions in the Baltic Sea have been even more extreme, the agency said, with sea surface temperatures more than 14 degrees F (8 degrees C) warmer than average.
Oceans naturally absorb and store heat, which can make them important bellwethers of global warming. Studies have found that oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the heat trapped on Earth from greenhouse gas emissions since 1970.
Amaya said that it's too soon to tease out the specific fingerprints of climate change on this marine heat wave.
The return of El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern, also adds to concerns that the world’s oceans will remain exceptionally warm in the coming months.
El Niño occurs when changes in the strength or direction of trade winds cause waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean to become warmer than usual. These shifts have a strong influence on global temperatures and extreme weather, including rainfall, hurricanes and other severe storms.
Amaya said he hopes the new forecast will be a valuable tool to help the public better understand marine heat waves. He also said it's a unique opportunity for scientists to study the consequences of such a pronounced anomaly.
“I’m certainly not excited for the impacts,” he said, “but I’m excited and curious to learn more about what’s going on from an intellectual and scientific perspective.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
North Atlantic temperatures are breaking records. What does it mean?
Scott Sutherland
Tue, June 20, 2023
Sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean are significantly higher now than they have been at any time in the past 42 years. What’s going on, and what impact might this have on this year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season?
Ocean temperatures have been running high ever since March, and the end of the La Niña pattern that had persisted for the past two and a half years. It was expected that the global average temperature would rise as the wide cool region of Pacific ocean surface during La Niña transitioned to warmer waters with the development of a new El Niño. However, a somewhat unexpected response was seeing the North Atlantic Ocean break temperature records over that same time period.
The situation is unprecedented. Since March 5, 2023, the average sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic has been breaking records, reaching a high of 23.1°C as of June 18. Never before in the over 42 years of record keeping have North Atlantic sea surface temperatures reached this high.
North-Atlantic-SST-18062023-ClimateReanalyzer
North Atlantic sea surface temperatures for year-to-date 2023 are shown in the above graph as a solid black line. Temperatures reached an average of 23.1C on June 18, 2023. That’s a half of a degree Celsius warmer than the previous record on that date, set back in 2010. (Climate Reanalyzer/Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine)
According to Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, the chances of global sea surface temperatures reaching as high as they are now, simply by chance, is only 1 in 256,000.
“This is beyond extraordinary,” McNoldy said on Twitter.
Impacts of this heat
Besides the implications for climate change and sea level rise, these extreme ocean temperatures are having local impacts on ocean wildlife.
One example is the thousands of dead fish that washed up on Texas shorelines over the past few weeks.
The reason for this comes down to the amount of oxygen available in the water. Calm waters and cloudy skies apparently contributed to this fish kill. According to the Quintana Beach County Park, which is one of the beaches affected by this fish kill, the cloudy skies reduced the amount of sunlight available to microscopic phytoplankton, which produce some of the oxygen that gets dissolved in the water, and the lack of waves limited how much oxygen was captured by the ocean surface due to wave action.
The warmer waters played a significant role, though, as oxygen levels in the water drop as the temperature rises.
"Water can only hold so much oxygen at certain temperatures, and certainly we know that seawater temperatures are rising," Katie St. Clair, the manager of the sea life facility at Texas A&M University at Galveston told NPR. "It is concerning and something that needs to be monitored."
A similar situation is also brewing off the coasts of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
2023's Atlantic Hurricane Season
Another particular area of concern here is the Atlantic Main Development Region, which is where most North Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes form.
According to Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, temperatures in this area of the Atlantic are record high right now.
With hotter sea surface temperatures in the Main Development Region, there comes a greater risk of powerful tropical cyclones spinning up.
“The MDR, a breeding ground for hurricanes, has an average temperature of 28˚C (82˚F), surpassing the previous record that was set in 2005,” Noll said. “2005 featured the second most active hurricane season on record. 2023 appears unlikely to be that active because of El Niño, but a busy season is well within the realm of possibility.”
As noted by Noll, with the newly-developed El Niño in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, there will be a tendency towards weaker tropical cyclones across the North Atlantic. During an El Niño, winds high above the Atlantic typically blow stronger than they do when there’s a La Niña pattern or when conditions are “in between” El Niño and La Niña. That has the effect of limiting how tall a tropical cyclone can grow, which in turn limits how strong the storm can become. Thus, El Niño years tend to have slightly weaker hurricane seasons, overall.
Such is not always the case, though. The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season occurred during a weak to moderate El Niño, and it still produced a total of 28 storms. From 2005 to 2019, it remained the most active hurricane season on record, and it still holds the record for the greatest number of hurricanes (15) and the greatest number of major hurricanes (7), which included four Category 5 storms — Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
Towards the end of May, NOAA issued their outlook for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, forecasting a 40 per cent chance of a near-normal year for tropical storms and hurricanes. Their forecast is calling for between 12-17 named storms to develop before the season ends on November 30. Of those storms, between 5 and 9 are expected to become hurricanes, and up to 4 of those hurricanes could develop into major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). Due to the uncertainties in how long these record-breaking ocean temperatures will last and how quickly El Niño will develop, the other 60 per cent confidence was evenly split with regards to whether this could end up as a “below average” or “above average” season.
Two-Day Atlantic June 20 2023 NHC
(NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center)
Even up until the middle of June, the only storm detected was Tropical Storm Arlene, which developed and then died off after only three days in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, as of June 19, activity is ramping up. The NWS’s National Hurricane Center is already tracking Tropical Storm Bret in the mid-Atlantic. Another disturbance (indicated by the “1” on the above satellite image) has a 70 per cent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the 48 hours after this article was published.
It remains to be seen exactly how Bret and this potential cyclone develop, but activity is definitely increasing and this could be a sign of a fairly active season ahead.
(Thumbnail courtesy Climate Reanalyzer/Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine)
Watch below: Climate change is turning summer into a real bummer
Click here to view the video
Scott Sutherland
Tue, June 20, 2023
Sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean are significantly higher now than they have been at any time in the past 42 years. What’s going on, and what impact might this have on this year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season?
Ocean temperatures have been running high ever since March, and the end of the La Niña pattern that had persisted for the past two and a half years. It was expected that the global average temperature would rise as the wide cool region of Pacific ocean surface during La Niña transitioned to warmer waters with the development of a new El Niño. However, a somewhat unexpected response was seeing the North Atlantic Ocean break temperature records over that same time period.
The situation is unprecedented. Since March 5, 2023, the average sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic has been breaking records, reaching a high of 23.1°C as of June 18. Never before in the over 42 years of record keeping have North Atlantic sea surface temperatures reached this high.
North-Atlantic-SST-18062023-ClimateReanalyzer
North Atlantic sea surface temperatures for year-to-date 2023 are shown in the above graph as a solid black line. Temperatures reached an average of 23.1C on June 18, 2023. That’s a half of a degree Celsius warmer than the previous record on that date, set back in 2010. (Climate Reanalyzer/Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine)
According to Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, the chances of global sea surface temperatures reaching as high as they are now, simply by chance, is only 1 in 256,000.
“This is beyond extraordinary,” McNoldy said on Twitter.
What’s going on here?
There is undoubtedly a human component to this. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, more heat is being trapped in Earth’s climate system, and a significant portion of that heat is going into the oceans. There are other factors contributing to it, though.
One is Saharan dust, or in this case, the lack of it.
Easterly winds blowing off the Sahara Desert carry dust particles out over the ocean. Depending on the specific conditions, this dust can form a thick layer that’s easily visible from space. At times, it can even travel straight across the ocean to impact air quality along the east coast of North America.
When this dust is present, the particles reflect sunlight back into space, thus keeping the ocean surface slightly cooler.
However, when dust concentrations are very low, as they are now, more sunlight reaches the ocean unimpeded and the surface heats up more than usual.
There is undoubtedly a human component to this. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, more heat is being trapped in Earth’s climate system, and a significant portion of that heat is going into the oceans. There are other factors contributing to it, though.
One is Saharan dust, or in this case, the lack of it.
Easterly winds blowing off the Sahara Desert carry dust particles out over the ocean. Depending on the specific conditions, this dust can form a thick layer that’s easily visible from space. At times, it can even travel straight across the ocean to impact air quality along the east coast of North America.
When this dust is present, the particles reflect sunlight back into space, thus keeping the ocean surface slightly cooler.
However, when dust concentrations are very low, as they are now, more sunlight reaches the ocean unimpeded and the surface heats up more than usual.
Impacts of this heat
Besides the implications for climate change and sea level rise, these extreme ocean temperatures are having local impacts on ocean wildlife.
One example is the thousands of dead fish that washed up on Texas shorelines over the past few weeks.
The reason for this comes down to the amount of oxygen available in the water. Calm waters and cloudy skies apparently contributed to this fish kill. According to the Quintana Beach County Park, which is one of the beaches affected by this fish kill, the cloudy skies reduced the amount of sunlight available to microscopic phytoplankton, which produce some of the oxygen that gets dissolved in the water, and the lack of waves limited how much oxygen was captured by the ocean surface due to wave action.
The warmer waters played a significant role, though, as oxygen levels in the water drop as the temperature rises.
"Water can only hold so much oxygen at certain temperatures, and certainly we know that seawater temperatures are rising," Katie St. Clair, the manager of the sea life facility at Texas A&M University at Galveston told NPR. "It is concerning and something that needs to be monitored."
A similar situation is also brewing off the coasts of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
2023's Atlantic Hurricane Season
Another particular area of concern here is the Atlantic Main Development Region, which is where most North Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes form.
According to Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, temperatures in this area of the Atlantic are record high right now.
With hotter sea surface temperatures in the Main Development Region, there comes a greater risk of powerful tropical cyclones spinning up.
“The MDR, a breeding ground for hurricanes, has an average temperature of 28˚C (82˚F), surpassing the previous record that was set in 2005,” Noll said. “2005 featured the second most active hurricane season on record. 2023 appears unlikely to be that active because of El Niño, but a busy season is well within the realm of possibility.”
As noted by Noll, with the newly-developed El Niño in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, there will be a tendency towards weaker tropical cyclones across the North Atlantic. During an El Niño, winds high above the Atlantic typically blow stronger than they do when there’s a La Niña pattern or when conditions are “in between” El Niño and La Niña. That has the effect of limiting how tall a tropical cyclone can grow, which in turn limits how strong the storm can become. Thus, El Niño years tend to have slightly weaker hurricane seasons, overall.
Such is not always the case, though. The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season occurred during a weak to moderate El Niño, and it still produced a total of 28 storms. From 2005 to 2019, it remained the most active hurricane season on record, and it still holds the record for the greatest number of hurricanes (15) and the greatest number of major hurricanes (7), which included four Category 5 storms — Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
Towards the end of May, NOAA issued their outlook for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, forecasting a 40 per cent chance of a near-normal year for tropical storms and hurricanes. Their forecast is calling for between 12-17 named storms to develop before the season ends on November 30. Of those storms, between 5 and 9 are expected to become hurricanes, and up to 4 of those hurricanes could develop into major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). Due to the uncertainties in how long these record-breaking ocean temperatures will last and how quickly El Niño will develop, the other 60 per cent confidence was evenly split with regards to whether this could end up as a “below average” or “above average” season.
Two-Day Atlantic June 20 2023 NHC
(NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center)
Even up until the middle of June, the only storm detected was Tropical Storm Arlene, which developed and then died off after only three days in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, as of June 19, activity is ramping up. The NWS’s National Hurricane Center is already tracking Tropical Storm Bret in the mid-Atlantic. Another disturbance (indicated by the “1” on the above satellite image) has a 70 per cent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the 48 hours after this article was published.
It remains to be seen exactly how Bret and this potential cyclone develop, but activity is definitely increasing and this could be a sign of a fairly active season ahead.
(Thumbnail courtesy Climate Reanalyzer/Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine)
Watch below: Climate change is turning summer into a real bummer
Click here to view the video
The North Atlantic is experiencing a ‘totally unprecedented’ marine heat wave
Climate Change Institute/University of Maine
Laura Paddison
Climate Change Institute/University of Maine
Laura Paddison
CNN
Tue, June 20, 2023
Temperatures in parts of the North Atlantic Ocean are soaring off the charts, with an “exceptional” marine heat wave happening off the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, sparking concerns about impacts on marine life.
Parts of the North Sea are experiencing a category 4 marine heat wave – defined as “extreme” – according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In some areas, water temperatures are up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) hotter than usual.
Global oceans have been exceptionally warm for months. April and May saw the highest ocean surface temperatures for those two months since records began in 1850.
The regional picture is even more stark, according to the UK Met Office: Temperatures in the North Atlantic in May were around 1.25 degrees Celsius (2.25 Fahrenheit) above average.
“The eastern Atlantic, from Iceland down to the tropics, is much warmer than average. But areas around parts of north-western Europe, including parts of the UK, have among some of the highest sea-surface temperatures relative to average,” Stephen Belcher, the Met Office’s chief scientist, said in a statement.
Many scientists are sounding the alarm.
The heatwave is “very exceptional,” said Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It is “currently the strongest on Earth,” he told CNN.
Richard Unsworth, an associate professor of biosciences at Swansea University in the UK and a founding director of Project-Seagrass, called the Atlantic heat wave “totally unprecedented.”
It is “way beyond the worst-case predictions for the changing climate of the region. It’s truly frightening how fast this ocean basin is changing,” he told CNN.
Risks are high for marine species, such as fish, coral and seagrass – many of which adapted to survive within certain temperature ranges. Hotter water can stress and even kill them.
“There’s a very high potential that animals such as oysters, plants and algae will be killed by this European marine heatwave, particularly within shallow waters where temperatures may super heat beyond the background levels,” Unsworth said.
Earlier this month, thousands of dead fish washed up along the Gulf Coast in Texas, a mass death which scientists believe is connected to rising ocean temperatures, as warmer water is able to hold less oxygen. And in 2021, an extreme heat wave cooked around a billion shellfish to death on Canada’s West Coast.
Scientists say there are a number of factors behind the extreme heat.
“It is the classic combination of the underpinning of human-caused climate change with a layer of natural variation within the climate system on top,” the UK Met Office said in a statement.
Planet-heating pollution rises as the world continues to burn fossil fuels, which means higher temperatures for oceans and land.
El Niño, which tends to have a warming effect globally, is expected to drive temperatures even higher this year.
And other factors may also play a role, including a lack of dust from the Sahara, which usually helps cool the region by reflecting away sunlight. “Weaker than average winds have reduced the extent of dust in the region’s atmosphere potentially leading to higher temperatures,” said Albert Klein Tank, the head of the Met Office Hadley Centre, in a statement.
Weaker winds may also have helped increase temperatures, as strong westerly winds typically cool the ocean surface, Rantanen said.
Another potential driver of ocean heat could be anti-pollution regulations which require ships to cut sulfur in their fuel, reducing aerosols in the atmosphere. While these aerosols have a negative impact on human health, they also have a cooling impact by reflecting away sunlight.
As climate change intensifies, marine heat waves are set to become more common. The frequency of marine heat waves has already increased more than 20-fold due to human-caused global warming, according to a 2020 study.
“While we can’t in detail predict the intensity, duration and location of severe heating events such as the current marine heatwave, we know they’re increasingly likely to be more prevalent as our climate system collapses further,” Unsworth said.
CNN.com
Tue, June 20, 2023
Temperatures in parts of the North Atlantic Ocean are soaring off the charts, with an “exceptional” marine heat wave happening off the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, sparking concerns about impacts on marine life.
Parts of the North Sea are experiencing a category 4 marine heat wave – defined as “extreme” – according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In some areas, water temperatures are up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) hotter than usual.
Global oceans have been exceptionally warm for months. April and May saw the highest ocean surface temperatures for those two months since records began in 1850.
The regional picture is even more stark, according to the UK Met Office: Temperatures in the North Atlantic in May were around 1.25 degrees Celsius (2.25 Fahrenheit) above average.
“The eastern Atlantic, from Iceland down to the tropics, is much warmer than average. But areas around parts of north-western Europe, including parts of the UK, have among some of the highest sea-surface temperatures relative to average,” Stephen Belcher, the Met Office’s chief scientist, said in a statement.
Many scientists are sounding the alarm.
The heatwave is “very exceptional,” said Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It is “currently the strongest on Earth,” he told CNN.
Richard Unsworth, an associate professor of biosciences at Swansea University in the UK and a founding director of Project-Seagrass, called the Atlantic heat wave “totally unprecedented.”
It is “way beyond the worst-case predictions for the changing climate of the region. It’s truly frightening how fast this ocean basin is changing,” he told CNN.
Risks are high for marine species, such as fish, coral and seagrass – many of which adapted to survive within certain temperature ranges. Hotter water can stress and even kill them.
“There’s a very high potential that animals such as oysters, plants and algae will be killed by this European marine heatwave, particularly within shallow waters where temperatures may super heat beyond the background levels,” Unsworth said.
Earlier this month, thousands of dead fish washed up along the Gulf Coast in Texas, a mass death which scientists believe is connected to rising ocean temperatures, as warmer water is able to hold less oxygen. And in 2021, an extreme heat wave cooked around a billion shellfish to death on Canada’s West Coast.
Scientists say there are a number of factors behind the extreme heat.
“It is the classic combination of the underpinning of human-caused climate change with a layer of natural variation within the climate system on top,” the UK Met Office said in a statement.
Planet-heating pollution rises as the world continues to burn fossil fuels, which means higher temperatures for oceans and land.
El Niño, which tends to have a warming effect globally, is expected to drive temperatures even higher this year.
And other factors may also play a role, including a lack of dust from the Sahara, which usually helps cool the region by reflecting away sunlight. “Weaker than average winds have reduced the extent of dust in the region’s atmosphere potentially leading to higher temperatures,” said Albert Klein Tank, the head of the Met Office Hadley Centre, in a statement.
Weaker winds may also have helped increase temperatures, as strong westerly winds typically cool the ocean surface, Rantanen said.
Another potential driver of ocean heat could be anti-pollution regulations which require ships to cut sulfur in their fuel, reducing aerosols in the atmosphere. While these aerosols have a negative impact on human health, they also have a cooling impact by reflecting away sunlight.
As climate change intensifies, marine heat waves are set to become more common. The frequency of marine heat waves has already increased more than 20-fold due to human-caused global warming, according to a 2020 study.
“While we can’t in detail predict the intensity, duration and location of severe heating events such as the current marine heatwave, we know they’re increasingly likely to be more prevalent as our climate system collapses further,” Unsworth said.
CNN.com
'Unprecedented' ocean temperatures and extreme heat waves pop up around the globe
Laura Baisas
‘Unheard of’ marine heatwave
The waters off the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland are several degrees above normal, particularly in the North Sea and north Atlantic Ocean. Global sea surface temperatures in April and May hit an all time high for those months according to records dating back to 1850. June is also on track to hit record heat levels, with the water in some areas off the coast of England up to nine degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) above normal. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), parts of the North Sea are in a category four marine heatwave, which is considered “extreme.”
“The extreme and unprecedented temperatures show the power of the combination of human-induced warming and natural climate variability like El Niño,” University of Bristol earth scientist Daniela Schmidt told The Guardian. “While marine heatwaves are found in warmer seas like the Mediterranean, such anomalous temperatures in this part of the north Atlantic are unheard of. They have been linked to less dust from the Sahara but also the North Atlantic climate variability, which will need further understanding to unravel.”
This heat is putting marine organisms at risk, and events like this will only continue if carbon emissions are not dramatically cut, according to Schmidt.
Southern heatwave–and severe weather–in the US
Over the holiday weekend, heat indexes in parts of Texas soared above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking records. More records are expected to fall this week as the power grid strains. Over 40 million people were affected by excessive heat warnings and heat advisories, from the border of Mexico and southwest Texas and eastward towards the border of southern Louisiana, and Mississippi.
In addition to the heat, overnight tropical humidity will trap in heat and prevent the nighttime low temperatures from dipping below 80 degrees in some places. The heat is expected to continue through the rest of this week, according to the National Weather Service.
All of this heat and humidity have fueled some June tornadoes. At least 17 tornadoes were reported over the weekend across Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Oregon, and Colorado. One person was killed and 18 others injured from the severe storms, including a reported tornado, in Jasper County, Mississippi.
“I’ve seen more tornadoes than I can count. I’ve never seen the level of decimation to a town, as I’ve seen today,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference on Saturday, June 17 according to The Washington Post.
[Related: World set to ‘temporarily’ breach major climate threshold in next five years.]
Deadly heat wave in northern India
In India, roughly 170 people have died amid a sweltering heat wave affecting two of the country’s most populated states. Routine power outages and overwhelmed hospitals compound the already dangerous situation.
Heat-related illnesses have killed at least 119 people in In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. In neighboring Bihar, at least 47 people have died.
“So many people are dying from the heat that we are not getting a minute’s time to rest. On Sunday, I carried 26 dead bodies,” Jitendra Kumar Yadav, a hearse driver in Deoria town, 110 68 miles from Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, told The Associated Press.
These regions of the country are known for extreme heat during the summer, but temperatures have been consistently above normal. According to the Indian Meteorological Department, high temperatures in recent days have consistently reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
A dire report from the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released late in 2022, found that the past eight years were the hottest on record. Since 1993, the rate of sea level rise has doubled, with the past two and a half years alone accounting for 10 percent of the overall rise in sea level since satellite measurements began about three decades ago.
Laura Baisas
POP SCI
Tue, June 20, 2023
Parts of the world are already baking under the summer sun.
There’s only one day to go before the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere—but some parts of the planet are already feeling the heat. Ocean temperatures are about nine degrees above normal in parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, while India and parts of the southern United States are baking under record breaking heat. Here’s what you need to know.
[Related: Summer is off to an extreme start—here’s why.]
Tue, June 20, 2023
Parts of the world are already baking under the summer sun.
There’s only one day to go before the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere—but some parts of the planet are already feeling the heat. Ocean temperatures are about nine degrees above normal in parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, while India and parts of the southern United States are baking under record breaking heat. Here’s what you need to know.
[Related: Summer is off to an extreme start—here’s why.]
‘Unheard of’ marine heatwave
The waters off the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland are several degrees above normal, particularly in the North Sea and north Atlantic Ocean. Global sea surface temperatures in April and May hit an all time high for those months according to records dating back to 1850. June is also on track to hit record heat levels, with the water in some areas off the coast of England up to nine degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) above normal. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), parts of the North Sea are in a category four marine heatwave, which is considered “extreme.”
“The extreme and unprecedented temperatures show the power of the combination of human-induced warming and natural climate variability like El Niño,” University of Bristol earth scientist Daniela Schmidt told The Guardian. “While marine heatwaves are found in warmer seas like the Mediterranean, such anomalous temperatures in this part of the north Atlantic are unheard of. They have been linked to less dust from the Sahara but also the North Atlantic climate variability, which will need further understanding to unravel.”
This heat is putting marine organisms at risk, and events like this will only continue if carbon emissions are not dramatically cut, according to Schmidt.
Southern heatwave–and severe weather–in the US
Over the holiday weekend, heat indexes in parts of Texas soared above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking records. More records are expected to fall this week as the power grid strains. Over 40 million people were affected by excessive heat warnings and heat advisories, from the border of Mexico and southwest Texas and eastward towards the border of southern Louisiana, and Mississippi.
In addition to the heat, overnight tropical humidity will trap in heat and prevent the nighttime low temperatures from dipping below 80 degrees in some places. The heat is expected to continue through the rest of this week, according to the National Weather Service.
All of this heat and humidity have fueled some June tornadoes. At least 17 tornadoes were reported over the weekend across Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Oregon, and Colorado. One person was killed and 18 others injured from the severe storms, including a reported tornado, in Jasper County, Mississippi.
“I’ve seen more tornadoes than I can count. I’ve never seen the level of decimation to a town, as I’ve seen today,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference on Saturday, June 17 according to The Washington Post.
[Related: World set to ‘temporarily’ breach major climate threshold in next five years.]
Deadly heat wave in northern India
In India, roughly 170 people have died amid a sweltering heat wave affecting two of the country’s most populated states. Routine power outages and overwhelmed hospitals compound the already dangerous situation.
Heat-related illnesses have killed at least 119 people in In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. In neighboring Bihar, at least 47 people have died.
“So many people are dying from the heat that we are not getting a minute’s time to rest. On Sunday, I carried 26 dead bodies,” Jitendra Kumar Yadav, a hearse driver in Deoria town, 110 68 miles from Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, told The Associated Press.
These regions of the country are known for extreme heat during the summer, but temperatures have been consistently above normal. According to the Indian Meteorological Department, high temperatures in recent days have consistently reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
A dire report from the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released late in 2022, found that the past eight years were the hottest on record. Since 1993, the rate of sea level rise has doubled, with the past two and a half years alone accounting for 10 percent of the overall rise in sea level since satellite measurements began about three decades ago.
Cooking with a gas stove may be as bad as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, study finds
WORSE ACTUALLY
Tony Briscoe
Wed, June 21, 2023
Researchers from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy tested gas and propane stoves in 87 homes across California and Colorado.
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
Cooking with gas-fired stoves can cause unsafe levels of toxins to accumulate inside homes, exposing people to roughly the same cancer risk as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, according to a new study.
Researchers from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy tested gas and propane stoves in 87 homes across California and Colorado and found that every appliance produced a detectable amount of cancer-causing benzene — a chemical with no safe level of exposure.
It only took 45 minutes for a single burner on high, or an oven set to 350 degrees, to boost benzene levels above well-established health base lines, according to the study, which was published last week in Environmental Science & Technology. In some cases, benzene levels exceeded concentrations found in secondhand tobacco smoke.
Scientists also found that benzene migrated well beyond kitchens, reaching unhealthy levels in other rooms and lingering within homes for hours. The toxic conditions, researchers found, were even worse in smaller homes, suggesting health risks may be worse for lower-income families with less square footage.
"That ties into it being an environmental justice issue too," said Yannai Kashtan, lead researcher and Stanford PhD candidate in earth system science. "A lot of folks either can't afford to replace their stove, or maybe are renters and their landlord doesn't want to. Also, lower-income folks are more likely to be living in smaller spaces where the same emission rate is going to translate into a higher concentration."
Gas stoves have been a fixture in American kitchens for over a century. But a growing body of research has exposed a plethora of contaminants and health consequences from cooking with gas.
The research — the first of its kind to examine benzene emissions from cooking — comes as politicians across the nation are sparring over the future of gas appliances in residential and commercial buildings.
Last year, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban most gas appliances in new buildings, a move intended to mitigate gas energy's contribution to global warming. New York, San Francisco and Seattle have passed similar regulations.
California air regulators have been considering phasing out gas appliances as well, to meet the state's ambitious climate goals.
Just last week, however, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would prevent the U.S. Department of Energy from banning gas stoves, a move the American Gas Assn. hailed, saying it protects a consumer's right to choose.
Karen Harbert, president and chief executive of the American Gas Assn., a trade organization representing more than 200 local energy companies nationwide, said it is evaluating the study "to understand its methodology and the merits of its findings."
"Customers deserve access to transparent information and sound science to help make decisions about the health and safety of their families, and the natural gas industry continues to contribute objective, thorough and meticulous scientific analysis,” Harbert said in a statement.
Lately, the debate has shifted to potential health risks associated with indoor air quality. Previous studies have concluded that gas stoves produce nitrogen dioxide, a lung irritant linked to asthma and a precursor to smog. In households with gas stoves, scientists have also found a greater prevalence of childhood asthma and respiratory conditions, such as wheezing.
When methane and propane gas are fully burned, the only products are water and carbon dioxide. But when gas is only partially combusted, stoves can spew carbon monoxide; formaldehyde, a carcinogen; and benzene.
The study found that cooking at higher temperatures produced more benzene emissions. However, in an interesting twist, scientists also found that cooking with a smaller flame produced more benzene per joule of gas consumed.
Previous research by PSE Healthy Energy examined harmful emissions from stoves that were not in use.
Benzene, which is present in underground oil and gas deposits, was found to leak from gas ranges and pollute homes even when cooktop burners and the oven were turned off.
The most recent study, however, found that benzene concentrations from cooking were 70 to 640 times greater than the median leakage rates measured in idle stoves.
The researchers noted that pollutant concentrations indoors depended on ventilation conditions and home size. Many gas ranges are fitted with ventilation hoods that can reduce concentrations.
When asked to comment on the paper's findings, the National Propane Gas Assn. released a statement saying that that additional research is needed to assess indoor pollutants. It noted also that the Stanford-PSE Heathy Energy study did not address ventilation rates.
"It does not propose that gas stoves are dangerous when used according to local guidelines," an association spokesperson said. "There are no facts or data in this study to suggest that a home ventilated in accordance with state regulations and manufacturers’ recommended guidelines would be dangerous."
But researchers tested the use of ventilation hoods, finding it helped reduce concentrations, though in some cases benzene was still measured above health limits.
"It's certainly helpful," Kashtan said about ventilation hoods. "But it doesn't guarantee that the pollution issue will be taken care of.
"One could come up with scenarios where you'd get lower concentrations," he added. "Sure, if you have all the windows open. But on the other hand, we're testing single ovens or single burners, so you certainly could come up with scenarios where you get higher concentrations."
Opening windows while cooking might also help reduce the risk of exposure, so long as air quality outdoors is not poor — a big assumption for some places in California.
"I'm fortunate to live in the breezy Bay Area, where we're opening a window most of the year and it's not a big problem, except for the occasional wildfire smoke days," Kashtan said. "But ... in Bakersfield, downwind of a bunch of 'Big Ag' and some of the largest oil fields in the state. Opening a window is a whole different situation there."
Ultimately, eliminating health risks would require a transition away from gas stoves. Researchers cooked with 13 electric induction stoves and did not detect any measurable amount of benzene.
But there are also stopgap measures residents can take, even if buying an electric range isn't an option.
"It's not all or nothing," Kashtan said. "You can get very inexpensive induction [cooktops] to reduce your reliance on the gas stove. There are a bunch of electric cooking appliances, air fryers, rice cookers, etc., that are sort of intermediate steps to reduce that source without eliminating it completely."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Cooking with gas-fired stoves can cause unsafe levels of toxins to accumulate inside homes, exposing people to roughly the same cancer risk as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, according to a new study.
Researchers from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy tested gas and propane stoves in 87 homes across California and Colorado and found that every appliance produced a detectable amount of cancer-causing benzene — a chemical with no safe level of exposure.
It only took 45 minutes for a single burner on high, or an oven set to 350 degrees, to boost benzene levels above well-established health base lines, according to the study, which was published last week in Environmental Science & Technology. In some cases, benzene levels exceeded concentrations found in secondhand tobacco smoke.
Scientists also found that benzene migrated well beyond kitchens, reaching unhealthy levels in other rooms and lingering within homes for hours. The toxic conditions, researchers found, were even worse in smaller homes, suggesting health risks may be worse for lower-income families with less square footage.
"That ties into it being an environmental justice issue too," said Yannai Kashtan, lead researcher and Stanford PhD candidate in earth system science. "A lot of folks either can't afford to replace their stove, or maybe are renters and their landlord doesn't want to. Also, lower-income folks are more likely to be living in smaller spaces where the same emission rate is going to translate into a higher concentration."
Gas stoves have been a fixture in American kitchens for over a century. But a growing body of research has exposed a plethora of contaminants and health consequences from cooking with gas.
The research — the first of its kind to examine benzene emissions from cooking — comes as politicians across the nation are sparring over the future of gas appliances in residential and commercial buildings.
Last year, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban most gas appliances in new buildings, a move intended to mitigate gas energy's contribution to global warming. New York, San Francisco and Seattle have passed similar regulations.
California air regulators have been considering phasing out gas appliances as well, to meet the state's ambitious climate goals.
Just last week, however, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would prevent the U.S. Department of Energy from banning gas stoves, a move the American Gas Assn. hailed, saying it protects a consumer's right to choose.
Karen Harbert, president and chief executive of the American Gas Assn., a trade organization representing more than 200 local energy companies nationwide, said it is evaluating the study "to understand its methodology and the merits of its findings."
"Customers deserve access to transparent information and sound science to help make decisions about the health and safety of their families, and the natural gas industry continues to contribute objective, thorough and meticulous scientific analysis,” Harbert said in a statement.
Lately, the debate has shifted to potential health risks associated with indoor air quality. Previous studies have concluded that gas stoves produce nitrogen dioxide, a lung irritant linked to asthma and a precursor to smog. In households with gas stoves, scientists have also found a greater prevalence of childhood asthma and respiratory conditions, such as wheezing.
When methane and propane gas are fully burned, the only products are water and carbon dioxide. But when gas is only partially combusted, stoves can spew carbon monoxide; formaldehyde, a carcinogen; and benzene.
The study found that cooking at higher temperatures produced more benzene emissions. However, in an interesting twist, scientists also found that cooking with a smaller flame produced more benzene per joule of gas consumed.
Previous research by PSE Healthy Energy examined harmful emissions from stoves that were not in use.
Benzene, which is present in underground oil and gas deposits, was found to leak from gas ranges and pollute homes even when cooktop burners and the oven were turned off.
The most recent study, however, found that benzene concentrations from cooking were 70 to 640 times greater than the median leakage rates measured in idle stoves.
The researchers noted that pollutant concentrations indoors depended on ventilation conditions and home size. Many gas ranges are fitted with ventilation hoods that can reduce concentrations.
When asked to comment on the paper's findings, the National Propane Gas Assn. released a statement saying that that additional research is needed to assess indoor pollutants. It noted also that the Stanford-PSE Heathy Energy study did not address ventilation rates.
"It does not propose that gas stoves are dangerous when used according to local guidelines," an association spokesperson said. "There are no facts or data in this study to suggest that a home ventilated in accordance with state regulations and manufacturers’ recommended guidelines would be dangerous."
But researchers tested the use of ventilation hoods, finding it helped reduce concentrations, though in some cases benzene was still measured above health limits.
"It's certainly helpful," Kashtan said about ventilation hoods. "But it doesn't guarantee that the pollution issue will be taken care of.
"One could come up with scenarios where you'd get lower concentrations," he added. "Sure, if you have all the windows open. But on the other hand, we're testing single ovens or single burners, so you certainly could come up with scenarios where you get higher concentrations."
Opening windows while cooking might also help reduce the risk of exposure, so long as air quality outdoors is not poor — a big assumption for some places in California.
"I'm fortunate to live in the breezy Bay Area, where we're opening a window most of the year and it's not a big problem, except for the occasional wildfire smoke days," Kashtan said. "But ... in Bakersfield, downwind of a bunch of 'Big Ag' and some of the largest oil fields in the state. Opening a window is a whole different situation there."
Ultimately, eliminating health risks would require a transition away from gas stoves. Researchers cooked with 13 electric induction stoves and did not detect any measurable amount of benzene.
But there are also stopgap measures residents can take, even if buying an electric range isn't an option.
"It's not all or nothing," Kashtan said. "You can get very inexpensive induction [cooktops] to reduce your reliance on the gas stove. There are a bunch of electric cooking appliances, air fryers, rice cookers, etc., that are sort of intermediate steps to reduce that source without eliminating it completely."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Iran has talks with EU's Mora amid efforts to save nuclear pact
Reuters
Wed, June 21, 2023
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran met in Qatar with European Union mediator Enrique Mora as part of efforts to revive its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers, as Tehran and Washington seek to cool tensions with a mutual "understanding" to help end the deadlock.
Having failed to revive the deal in indirect talks that have stalled since September, Iranian and Western officials have met repeatedly in recent weeks to sketch out steps that could curb Iran's fast advancing nuclear work, free some U.S. and European detainees held in Iran and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad.
"(I) had a serious and constructive meeting with Mora in Doha. We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting," Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Twitter, without elaborating.
Mora tweeted that the Doha talks were "intense" and had touched on "a range of difficult bilateral, regional and international issues, including the way forward on the JCPOA" - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is officially called.
EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the bloc was "keeping diplomatic channels open, including through this meeting in Doha, to address all issues of concern with Iran".
Bagheri Kani said last week that he had met his British, German and French counterparts in the United Arab Emirates to discuss "a range of issues and mutual concerns".
The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s disputed uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.
But then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact in 2018, calling it too lenient on Iran, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
Tehran responded by gradually moving well beyond the pact's restrictions on enrichment, rekindling U.S., European and Israeli fears that it might be seeking an atomic bomb.
The Islamic Republic has long denied seeking to weaponise the enrichment process, saying it seeks nuclear energy only for civilian uses.
The meeting between Bagheri and Mora in Qatar's capital Doha came days after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters such as the nuclear dossier, said a new nuclear deal with the West was possible.
(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold in Berlin; writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Jon Boyle and Mark Heinrich)
Reuters
Wed, June 21, 2023
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran met in Qatar with European Union mediator Enrique Mora as part of efforts to revive its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers, as Tehran and Washington seek to cool tensions with a mutual "understanding" to help end the deadlock.
Having failed to revive the deal in indirect talks that have stalled since September, Iranian and Western officials have met repeatedly in recent weeks to sketch out steps that could curb Iran's fast advancing nuclear work, free some U.S. and European detainees held in Iran and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad.
"(I) had a serious and constructive meeting with Mora in Doha. We exchanged views and discussed a range of issues including negotiations on sanctions lifting," Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said on Twitter, without elaborating.
Mora tweeted that the Doha talks were "intense" and had touched on "a range of difficult bilateral, regional and international issues, including the way forward on the JCPOA" - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is officially called.
EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the bloc was "keeping diplomatic channels open, including through this meeting in Doha, to address all issues of concern with Iran".
Bagheri Kani said last week that he had met his British, German and French counterparts in the United Arab Emirates to discuss "a range of issues and mutual concerns".
The 2015 agreement limited Iran’s disputed uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.
But then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact in 2018, calling it too lenient on Iran, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
Tehran responded by gradually moving well beyond the pact's restrictions on enrichment, rekindling U.S., European and Israeli fears that it might be seeking an atomic bomb.
The Islamic Republic has long denied seeking to weaponise the enrichment process, saying it seeks nuclear energy only for civilian uses.
The meeting between Bagheri and Mora in Qatar's capital Doha came days after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters such as the nuclear dossier, said a new nuclear deal with the West was possible.
(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold in Berlin; writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Jon Boyle and Mark Heinrich)
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