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Andy Mayor

Essay assignment; “Evidence in the ocean for climate change – past or present”.

5 March 2009

The Ocean; as a natural climate thermometer

Introduction
Climate, the long-term prevalent weather conditions, has a major influence on life on Earth. Energy from the sun in the form of incoming solar electromagnetic (EM) radiation is ultimately responsible for driving the Earth’s climate. It is believed yet not well understood that the Earth’s climate is been regulated through complex interactions between the Earth’s five major realms to name the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, cryosphere and biosphere . Furthermore, scientists believe that the total incoming solar energy (mostly in the form of short wavelengths) is out balanced by the Earth’s total backscattered energy (mostly in the form of long wavelengths that will escape into space), creating hereby a steady state balance . Also, it is believed that this steady state balance has been uninterrupted for the last …year making it possible for human civilisation to developed
It has not been known for long that the ocean has an important role in modifying Earth’s climate by absorbing and storing incoming solar heating at lower latitudes and redistributing it polarwards by means of a global scale ocean circulation systems . Between all before mentioned realms the ocean has a very important role in regulation the Earth’s climate due to its high heat capacity


But, nowadays, scientists believe, based on recent scientific evidence, that the Earth’s climate had fluctuated regularly over varied temporal and spatial scales in the past and that the GMST has risen by …. per year since the start of the industrial revolution. It is believed that the causation of the pre-industrial revolution climate changes might be of a different nature than that of the current global climatic change. It is well established...