Stop Fixating on Kate's Photoshopping and Pay Attention to This Unaltered Reality: 365 Consecutive Days of Record-Breaking Global Sea Surface Temperatures.
When the media touches on climate change, it's often a side note in their coverage of wildfires, hurricanes, or heatwaves. Images of natural disasters are clickable and profitable. But what can't be captured in a photo will get little attention, including the underwater impacts of climate change.
The massive coral bleaching events in the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere are like wildfires raging beneath the waves. But instead of vibrant flames that catch the eye, bleaching quietly erases the vivid hues of suffering corals.
Out of sight is out of mind. Or so it seems until the Princess of Wales enters the picture. Unlike bleaching coral, she was first in everybody's mind because she was out of sight. And when she reappeared in a digitally enhanced family photo. Suddenly, even reputable newspapers couldn't resist staying silent.
Let's not get swept up in KateGate and return to the much more worrying underwater events, especially those Down Under. The following graph is not photoshopped:
This NASA graph shows annual estimates for the first 2,000 meters of ocean depth; each data point represents a five-year average. For example, the 2021 value represents the average change in ocean heat content (since 1955) for 2019 up to and including 2023. Considering the globally rising greenhouse gas emissions and the first graph with its extreme values for most of 2023 and the first months of 2024, you may expect the rising line to be around for a while.
Both graphs I used are deeply worrying, and it makes me wonder why we have all seen dozens of photos and articles about Kate's photoshopping while you haven't seen these charts in your newspaper.
I wish I could peek into the editorial board meetings of a leading international newspaper and follow the discussions between the head of the royal gossip section and the science reporter. Where one pleads for another article about a finger mismatch as yet another proof of Princess Catherine's lack of Photoshop skills, the science reporter tries one more time to convince the board and pleads:
"Those rising lines in these graphs warn us that we can't continue abusing the planet without terrible consequences, while the Kate story only warns you not to Photoshop if you are a princess; we have a responsibility to our readers and warn them about what's happening on this planet.
Our readers should know that the oceans are central to any climate change story. About 90 percent of global warming occurs in the ocean, fueling an unprecedented surge in sea surface temperatures.
The ocean's capacity to store so much heat results in water expansion. This is a crucial factor contributing to global sea level rise, accounting for approximately one-third to one-half of the observed increase. This additional heat is concentrated near the ocean surface, spanning depths from zero to 700 meters.
The rising temperatures of the oceans will ultimately impact all of us. Think, for instance, about coral bleaching, accelerated melting of ice sheets, fueling intensifying hurricanes developing over the warmer sea surface, impact on sea life that can't cope with higher temperatures and loses its breeding grounds.
As journalists, we are responsible for sharing the story of climate change, but even though 2023 smashed climate records and was the hottest year ever measured, corporate broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Co.) reduced their climate coverage last year by 25 percent."
The science reporter makes one last plea: "One of the world's seven natural wonders is dying, and most of us haven't even heard of it!"
But the seasoned editor, weighing profit against principle, opts for another headline-grabbing, colorful royal story instead of dull graphs or grey-shaded photos of dying coral.
The science reporter wonders aloud why a princess, or any woman anywhere in the world, especially one who has asked for some space, owes any newspaper an explanation of what's going on with her body.
Back to those warming oceans: The last decade was the ocean's warmest since at least the 1800s, with 2023 marking the warmest year on record. Heatwaves in the eastern Pacific and northern Atlantic Ocean signaled a troubling trend.
The remarkable rise in sea surface temperatures of last year has continued in 2024, resulting this week in a unique record of 365 consecutive days on which a new global average sea surface temperature record was set for that day of the year.
But underwater news always loses in the media race for attention.
Imagine the last of the original seven wonders of the world that is still largely intact, the Great Pyramid of Giza, suddenly collapsing. Indeed, it would be all over the news. But now that the largest living structure on Earth faces an existential struggle in the warming ocean, it is met with silence.
The handful of mass bleaching events of the past decade are the ocean's equivalent of the well-publicized wildfires. And it's not just the iconic Great Barrier Reef; coral reefs worldwide suffer under rapidly changing conditions. We may be crossing a tipping point for coral reefs worldwide; we will only know in hindsight.
One day, you will talk with your grandkids about this time. They will ask you what you knew, how you acted, and why humanity didn't unite to take action. Your answer will likely be long and complicated to follow, with lots of finger-pointing at the world's largest and most powerful companies, incompetent politicians, and confusion in the media.
Such answers will be far more complicated than the question asked: what did you do?
I write this newsletter because if we work together, we can do better on this beautiful but fragile planet.
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Notes:
Absolutely! Indeed! Amen! Thank you! Sheesh the things we find more important are freaking astounding!
Extremely disturbing news that was not prioritized by the click bait media. Thank you for refocusing our attention on things that are existential and informative. You mention our descendants asking what did you do? Would you share ideas as to how to be useful in these tipping points? The planet 🌍 is dying and we worry and focus on political theatre and trivia, nonsense, Oscar dresses and such. How very ludicrous. The lack of foresight is an abomination.