Ocean Overheating; Global Floods Beckon Noah; Antarctica on Alert – 3 Articles
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Massive Ocean Regime Shift, Alarming
Figure shows changes in heat content of the top 700 meters of the world’s oceans
between 1955 and 2023 (US EPA)
A new study published in ScienceDaily claims severe ocean overheating may be causing a fundamental climate shift. Ocean heatwaves over the past couple of years have been massive and extensive and intensive on a scale never seen before at times covering 96% of the world’s oceans, which should be impossible. [“The Oceans are Overheating – and Scientists Say a Climate Tipping Point May be Here”, ScienceDaily d/d July 26, 2025]
Starting in 2022-23, massive ocean heatwaves persisted for more than 500 days covering nearly the entire globe. This shocking event, never witnessed before, puts the entire global warming scenario on a new level that’s predictably negative. The message is as clear as a bell: World leadership should focus on removal of fossil fuel emissions as soon as possible. Global warming, especially in the ocean, is on a rapid upswing and not waiting around, as such, fully 2/3rds of the planet is suffering a very dangerous heat stroke that’s separate and apart from extreme heatwaves on land.
After all, Earth is basically a liquid planet, according to NASA: “Covering more than 70% of Earth’s surface, our global ocean has a very high heat capacity. It has absorbed 90% of the warming that has occurred in recent decades due to increasing greenhouse gases, and the top few meters of the ocean store as much heat as Earth’s entire atmosphere.” [“Ocean Warming/ Vital Signs”, NASA]
Scientists fear system-wide climate change may be in the works, threatening ocean marine ecosystems such corals, fisheries, and aquaculture, as well as goosing up terrestrial temperatures way too fast too soon across the planet. Marine heatwaves this decade have lasted four times (4x) longer than the historical record. Hot oceans accelerate climate change. As water temperatures rise, oceans lose ability to absorb excessive heat and land temperatures rise accordingly.
“According to the study’s researchers, the 2023 MHWs may mark a fundamental shift in ocean-atmosphere dynamics, potentially serving as an early warning of an approaching tipping point in Earth’s climate system.” [Ibid.]
Given the duration of the heatwave, which began in earnest in 2023 and continues today in some regions, Zhenzhong Zeng, PhD, co-author of the study and Earth systems scientist at the China Southern University of Science and Technology believes it is the start of a “new normal for the world’s oceans.” Emerging data indicates the heat in the oceans is accumulating exponentially, a trend that defies climate model predictions. It’ll accelerate heat on land, leading to more severe and widespread droughts, heatwaves, wildfires and storms, which are already seriously severe in today’s world.
Zhenzhong Zeng claims to be “very scared” by the potential regime shift in the oceans: “I think almost all of the Earth system model projections are wrong… Record marine heatwaves may signal a permanent shift in the oceans.”
Some impacts of the shift are starting to appear: “When Ocean temperatures rise dramatically, they trigger a cascade of effects that lead to mass fish deaths. The primary mechanism involves oxygen depletion, as warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen while simultaneously increasing fish’s metabolic rates and oxygen requirements. This double impact can lead to widespread suffocation. Additionally, fish are ectothermic (cold-blooded), making them particularly vulnerable to temperature changes” [“Marine Heatwaves Trigger Mass Fish Deaths in Australian Waters”, Aussie Animals, 2025].
Devastating results hit Western Australia early in 2025. Temperatures 5°C above normal killed tens of thousands of fish. Scientists agree this represents a broader global challenge as research shows climate change has multiplied the event of marine heat zones by 20 times. Now, it’s coming home to roost as the world’s oceans turn away from decades of absorbing excessive global heat.
Ocean Payback
According to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the ocean won’t hold its heat forever. Eventually, it’ll feed back into the climate system, causing acceleration of global warming beyond all expectations, as “it’s too late” becomes reality.
It’s not just oceans that are overheating: “Water temperatures have surged above 85 degrees in the Mediterranean Sea, where records have been broken every day for weeks [“The Mediterranean Sea is Experiencing a Record-Smashing Heat Wave”, The Washington Post, July 4, 2025]. Scientists have expressed concern over the potential for sizeable losses of marine life.
Ocean Heat Impact – Antarctica & Greenland
The Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets represent the largest land store of freshwater, which, should they completely melt and flow into the ocean, would add a total of 7.5 and 58 m to global-mean sea level, respectively. Recent observations have shown the ice sheets melting at an accelerating rate. Now, ocean heat has become a bigger-than-expected threat to the stability of the major ice sheets much, much earlier than science expected.
The Greenland ice sheet is particularly vulnerable, as warm ocean currents undercut fjords and erode outlet glaciers, undercutting and destabilizing calving.
The leading cause of ice mass loss for the West Antarctica Ice Sheet is ocean heat. Only recently, under the auspices of the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, 450 polar scientists held an emergency meeting to alert the world to clear evidence of instability of the ice sheet. They strongly suggest immediate halt to fossil fuels.
Statement of Polar scientists’ group: “The services of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica – oceanic carbon sink and planetary air-conditioner – have been taken for granted. Global warming-induced shifts observed in the region are immense. Recent research has shown record-low sea ice, extreme heatwaves exceeding 40°C [104°F] above average temperatures, and increased instability around key ice shelves. Shifting ecosystems on land and at sea underscore this sensitive region’s rapid and unprecedented transformations. Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea-level rise is possible within our lifetimes. Whether such irreversible tipping points have already passed is unknown.” [“‘Emergency’ Warning for Antarctica Issued by Nearly 500 Polar Scientists”, IFLScience, Nov. 22, 2024]
Unfortunately, climate change is not about to go away, rather, it is gaining momentum by the year as CO2 emissions from fossil fuels skyrocket into the atmosphere, as of June 2025 at 430 ppm, a new record high for atmospheric concentration. Moreover, the annual rate of CO2 increase in 2024 (also setting a new record) was 3.50 ppm, more than double the annual rate in 2000 at 1.24 ppm, when atmospheric CO2 concentration was at 37o ppm.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2015 an international group of scientists determined anything above 350 ppm atmospheric CO2 would be beyond the “safe zone.” Nobody has suggested the scientists have changed their minds. But that issue is now upstaged by the world’s property/casualty insurance industry as it screams, hollers, complains, rejects, doubles rates, drops coverage all because of climate change. Property insurers have brought to the fore in full public view a climate change monster that’s destroying the American dream of home ownership.
Based upon referenced sources herein, fossil fuel emissions must be stopped as soon as possible to hopefully mitigate a whacky climate system that is already threatening the very foundations of the current socio/economic system, unwittingly suggesting maybe ‘it should also go’ the way of fossil fuels.
As if out of the blue, within only a couple of years, climate change has become capitalism’s biggest nightmare. Maybe they should scramble to do whatever is scientifically necessary to try to mitigate whatever can be mitigated. Too bad CO2 capture and sequester is a decidedly weak, and inconsequential, solution. “It’s a fraud!” (Al Gore)
[Courtesy: CounterPunch.]
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Global Floods Beckon Noah
Devastating widespread flooding and flash floods are becoming normal. Try spinning a globe and stop at any continent, other than Antarctica, blindfolded, point a finger, spot a flood. There’s nothing fake about the global warming leviathan absorbing more moisture in a warming atmosphere, much more than ever before, feeding a frenzy of powerful thunderstorms and atmospheric rivers, erupting like waterfalls from the sky. Noah is beckoned.
“Our entire infrastructure and civilization are based around a climate that no longer exists,” John Marsham, professor of atmospheric science, University of Leeds, as numerous locations throughout the world become more difficult to insure against flood damage. (“Flash Floods Are a Worsening Scourge Worldwide — Here’s Why”, Business Insider, October 24, 2024)
Throughout the globe, flooding has turned spectacularly powerfully biblical in scope. In 2025 it’s everywhere all at once. It’s a destroyer of property and a killer of people, and it is intensifying like never before in human history because of the climate change monster, inspired by human activity burning fossil fuels, called global warming. Since 2000, the number of recorded flood-related disasters has risen by 134% compared with the two previous decades. (“Global Assessment Report 2025 Hazards: Floods”, UNDRR)
In America in the month of July alone 1,434 flash flood warnings and 17 flash flood emergencies nationwide, additionally, 2,000 official preliminary flood-related storm reports with the biggest in Texas with nearly two feet of rain in a couple of days. This data is provided by the National Centers for Environmental Information. However, forewarned, future reports will be difficult to find. The Trump administration has already significantly reduced NOAA’s staff, research capacity, and data-sharing capability, including weather forecasts. (“The Lasting Threat of Trump’s Cuts to NOAA and NWS on American Communities”, Center for American Progress, July 16, 2025).
Moreover, “the Trump administration’s 2026 budget appears to be actively working to eliminate the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) along with all NOAA weather laboratories and cooperative institutes and laboratories, which provide weather forecasting data and research from 80 universities and work to improve NOAA’s warning and forecast capabilities,” Ibid.
Along those lines, similarly, it’s common knowledge that Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (publ. 1949) depicts science as a tool manipulated by the Party and not a tool of independent pursuit of knowledge. In fact, 1984’s Newspeak does not have an official word for “science.” Manipulation of truth has no room for objective, empirical science. Like an obedient dog, Trump is honoring the Orwellian tradition. But so what? Who really cares and who really does anything to oppose it tells a despicable story of acquiescence within the confines of a weakened subservient infection-like plague crushing human spirit.
Nevertheless, worldwide flooding carries on, ignoring small minds, powering ahead. So far in 2025, a small sampling of real events: Five entire villages washed away in Baghlan Province Afghanistan; Queensland State 12 inches/24 hours; Kentucky 9 inches few hours; Nepal catastrophic flash flooding; Pakistan deathly relentless flash floods: East Cape Province, huge flood; Texas Hill Country, killer flash flood; Niger State, deadly flash flood; Kenya catastrophic flooding; Columbia widespread flooding; Venezuela enormous flooding; Brazil 127 municipalities displaced; China flood kills 30 in city of Beijing; fatal storms flood south of France, killer torrential rains Buidoso, New Mexico, 1,000-year rainfall Chicago, deadly pounding rain North Carolina, NYC subways under water, Kansas City flooded, etc.
This type of legendary flood destruction in the contemporary world is mysteriously reflected in precious holy writings by several cultures, forewarnings of what happens when the planet is out of kilter, like now: “The Bible (Genesis 6–9) describes a worldwide flood (the Noachian Flood) covering even the highest mountains of the earth and the construction of a huge boat (a rectangular box-like craft) that transported animals, at least two of a kind of all land animals on the earth. The Qur’an (Suras 11 and 71) has almost a duplicate story with a similar huge boat that transported animals and a worldwide flood. In addition, two older stories exist in ancient Babylonian epics that describe a huge flood. One is the Epic of Gilgamesh, describing a flood on the Euphrates River (Academy of Ancient Texts nd). The other is the Epic of Atrahasis, which has a huge flood on the Tigris River (Byers nd).” (“Yes, Noah’s Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth”, National Center for Science Education, Vol. 29, 2009)
What is the signal behind unprecedented flooding, which some claim as god’s message for human wickedness, other than enormous overpowering destructiveness? It’s climate change but not regular ole climate change. This is brand new stuff: Global warming from whacky climate change means more evaporation and more moisture in the atmosphere, which means rainfall intensified sparked by human-driven greenhouse gases. This is basic science 101, and as global warming increases, thanks to excessive levels of fossil fuel burning CO2, Noah will be needed more than anybody can possibly imagine. Flooding has become a pop star on TV news.
Property insurance has become the world’s most conclusive barometer of how climate change affects society, turning into a big nuisance, threatening the basic structure of capitalism: “Insurers are responding to heightened losses by reducing coverage, exiting high-risk markets, and dramatically raising premiums. For many, insurance coverage is unavailable or unaffordable, leaving them unprotected from disaster. As former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has warned, ‘We’re marching steadily toward an uninsurable future.” (“Managing the Climate Change-Fueled Property Insurance Crisis”, Center for American Progress, April 2, 2025)
Radical climate change, that’s well beyond human experience, has become prevalent on the face of the planet with massive storms disrupting nations throughout the world broadcast on TV evening news, making climate deniers appear foolish and childishly ignorant driven by sophomoric minds. Climate denialism, which has spread across the world recently. is suffocated by actual events broadcast on nightly news. Now, the Orwellian crowd is challenged.
There is strong evidence that the public is fed up, pissed-off with climate denialism and baseless destruction of science as television broadcasts the harsh reality of major never-seen-before floods throughout the world, opening public eyes to a climate-change-world they’ve been told is fake. It’s not!
A sweeping nationwide study: “American Attitudes Toward Government Interventions in Science” survey of 31,062 Americans across 50 states is the most comprehensive study in 2025 of public opinion of recent federal efforts to suppress science, as conducted by the University of Rochester, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers: “Across all demographics and political affiliations, disapproval of the administration’s actions outpaces approval by more than two to one.” Only 21% of Americans approve. (“Study; Widespread Disapproval of Federal Interventions in Science”, Public Health, University of Rochester, News Center, July 8, 2025)
Based upon the “polling trend” and highly probable future public exposure to more insane flooding on TV, thereby making climate change appear so very real as to really be real, not fake, it’ll bring disappointment and disapproval at the polls, likely worse than two-to-one against MAGA hollowness by midterm 2026. No science, no vote!
[Courtesy: CounterPunch.]
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Antarctica on Alert!
Over the past year, several studies about highly dangerous signals of Antarctica on the edge of major abrupt change have appeared in scholarly publications. These studies in premier publications expose rapid changes, e.g. (1) discovery of the western Antarctic Peninsula as one of the fastest warming places on Earth (2) ocean currents threaten to collapse Antarctic Ice Shelves (3) present day mass loss rates are a precursor for West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse (4) an unexpected ice collapse hints at worrying changes on the Antarctic coast. The new scientific narrative has scientists very nervous.
Abrupt changes have become more common in the climate system, but Antarctica is one region that nobody wants to hear about “abrupt change,” especially with the potential impact nearly impossible to analyze with certainty. It could be a worldwide disaster, or it could be no big deal. Nobody knows for sure. But, the crucial question remains: Will it flood the world’s coastal megacities? And if so, how soon?
A new study, “Emerging Evidence of Abrupt Changes in the Antarctic Environment”, Nature, August 20, 2025 serves to highlight other recent warnings. Antarctica could be experiencing a regime shift that suddenly, out of the blue, threatens some level of collapse. It could be big; it could be much less; nobody knows for sure. As a result, for precautionary purposes, as well as regular ole common sense, scientists say fossil fuel emissions should be brought to a standstill.
It was only one year ago when 450 polar scientists called an emergency session: “Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea level rise is possible within our lifetimes.” (Source: “Our Science, Your Future: Next Generation of Antarctic Scientists Call for Collaborative Action”, Australian Antarctic Research Conference, November 22, 2024). It’s very probable that the world is not prepared for what these polar scientists had to say… “catastrophic sea level rise is possible within our lifetimes.”
“Recent research has shown record-low sea ice, extreme heatwaves exceeding 40°C (104°F) above average temperatures, and increased instability around key ice shelves. Shifting ecosystems on land and at sea underscore this sensitive region’s rapid and unprecedented transformations. Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea-level rise is possible within our lifetimes. Whether such irreversible tipping points have already passed is unknown,” Ibid.
Polar scientists, especially 450 of them, are not studying Antarctica for the fun of it or simply to get their names into print. No, not at all, the job of a polar scientist is as close to selflessness as one can find. The rewards are few. Imagine meeting a polar scientist at a cocktail party, introduced, what to say? It is an arcane field of study. The point is polar scientist have absolutely nothing to gain by overstating findings but a lot to lose, their reputation and position. They are sticklers for facts, and they are speaking out about dangers in Antarctica. Not that many years ago, nobody worried about this frozen-solid continent the size of the United States and Mexico. Now, it’s on the frontlines of abrupt climate change, happening fast and faster, especially since 2022.
In fact, scientists are more concerned today than when a “worst case” for sea level rise was posted on MIT Climate Portal d/d June 12, 2024: “By 2100, we could see as little as 8 inches of additional sea level rise, or over 6 feet—based partly on how much we continue to pollute the climate, and partly on how the oceans respond to climate change that’s already baked in.”
Based upon the explicit nervousness of polar scientists, calling an emergency meeting in November ’24, plus new facts about abrupt change, plus extraordinary out-of-this-world increases in CO2 emissions (more on this to follow), common sense says it’ll likely be closer to 6 feet than to 8 inches. And if six feet happens to be the magical number by 2100, then what will it be in 2030 or 2040? One/two feet? One foot would be too much for some coastal cities, one foot sea level rise typically equals 100’ of shoreline underwater and high tide brings flooded streets further inland. Maybe it’s a good idea to start planning sea walls for coastal megacities Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Jakarta, Miami, New York City, and New Orleans.
A major study by C40 Cities suggests a scenario: “If the world fails to commit to the Paris Agreement’s goal of reducing carbon emissions and limit global average temperature rise to 1.5oC, many of the world’s cities will face an extraordinary threat from rising seas and coastal flooding by mid-century.” (“Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding”, C40 Cities, 2018)
C40 is a global network of 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities united to confront the climate crisis. According to several articles in C40’s archives, the world’s major cities are taking positive steps to combat climate change.
Still, “as with other climate hazards, local factors mean that cities will experience sea level rise at different paces. Cities on the east coast of the U.S., including New York City and Miami, are particularly vulnerable, along with major cities in Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok and Shanghai. In the U.S., east coast cities are witnessing sea level rise that is two to three times faster than the global average while cities along China’s Yellow River Delta are experiencing sea level rise of more than 22 cm (9 inches) per year.” (Ibid.)
It should be noted that the Paris Agreement goal of reducing carbon emissions has effectively been tossed out the window by inaction. They’re not even close to meeting the targets agreed to by 196 signatory countries in 2015. In fact, emissions are growing faster than ever as fossil fuel production ramps up, meaning a current update of the consequences outlined in the C40 study of 2018 (referenced above) would likely stagger the imagination.
In lieu of all above, it is extremely difficult to accept United States deemphasis and destruction of climate change mitigation efforts while emphasizing, promoting more fossil fuels. According to a recent C40 poll:
- More than two-thirds of Americans, 80% of Europeans, and 91% of Chinese said they are witnessing the impact of climate change in their daily lives.
- 87% of people surveyed in the EU, 76% in China, and 74% in the US say their governments have been too slow to act in averting climate change.
- In the United States, 63% of registered voters think developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress.
Obviously, public opinion is clearly in favor of tackling climate change, but time is the enemy. It takes time: “It takes tens of thousands of years for an ice sheet to grow, but just decades to destabilize it by burning fossil fuels. Now we only have a narrow window to act” (“Scientists Say Next Few Years Vital to Securing the Future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet”, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, March 6, 2025).
The referenced Potsdam study says Antarctica’s future is dependent upon “immediate actions to reduce emissions.” Oh, well! Thirty years of broken promises by countries attending UN climate conferences does not bode well for “immediate action.”
Meanwhile carbon dioxide CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue setting new all-time records year-by-year. According to Climate. gov: “Based on the annual analysis from NOAA’s Global Monitoring Lab (while it last), global average atmospheric carbon dioxide was 422.8 ppm in 2024, a new record high. The increase during 2024 was 3.75 ppm—the largest one-year increase on record. At Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, where the modern carbon dioxide record began in 1958, the annual average carbon dioxide in 2024 was 424.61 ppm, also a new record.” This is already substantially above the danger zone as described by climate scientists some years ago.
The essence of the problem is the annual rate of increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past 60 years has been many times faster than previous natural increases. The paleoclimate record shows a rate of 0.02 ppm per annum as natural variability. In 2024, the annual rate was 3.75 ppm or an 18,600% increase over natural variability.
Antarctica is global warming’s biggest target with West Antarctica the most vulnerable, and it’s challenging to fully understand with any degree of accuracy, how much, how soon? Nobody really knows for sure what’ll happen or when, but one thing’s for certain, according to polar scientists, it’s headed in the wrong direction and way too fast for comfort.
Solution: According to polar scientists, fossil fuel CO2 emissions must be stopped as soon as possible, replaced with renewables, especially solar with battery backup, currently experiencing a renaissance of enormous magnitude around the world, a virtual “race is on” to see whether this can effectively defer, in time, key ecosystems already close to unraveling. More on this fascinating development later.
[Robert Hunziker is a freelance writer and environmental journalist from Los Angeles. Courtesy: CounterPunch, an online magazine based in the United States that covers politics in a manner its editors describe as “muckraking with a radical attitude”. It is edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank.]
