Essential Principles 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
This principle is hard to ignore as weather patterns increase in intensity. Rain, wind, hurricanes and cyclones are all caused by processes that begin in the ocean. The ocean affects changes to our climate by absorbing roughly half of all carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere.
3: The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate.
a. The interaction of oceanic and atmospheric processes controls weather and climate by dominating the Earth’s energy, water, and carbon systems.
b. The ocean moderates global weather and climate by absorbing most of the solar radiation reaching Earth. Heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere drives the water cycle and oceanic and atmospheric circulation.
c. Heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere can result in dramatic global and regional weather phenomena, impacting patterns of rain and drought. Significant examples include the El Niño Southern Oscillation and La Niña, which cause important changes in global weather patterns because they alter the sea surface temperature patterns in the Pacific.
d. Condensation of water that evaporated from warm seas provides the energy for hurricanes and cyclones. Most rain that falls on land originally evaporated from the tropical ocean.
e. The ocean dominates the Earth’s carbon cycle. Half the primary productivity on Earth takes place in the sunlit layers of the ocean. The ocean absorbs roughly half of all carbon dioxide and methane that are added to the atmosphere.
f. The ocean has had, and will continue to have, a significant influence on climate change by absorbing, storing, and moving heat, carbon and water. Changes in the ocean’s circulation have produced large, abrupt changes in climate during the last 50,000 years.
g. Changes in the ocean-atmosphere system can result in changes that in turn, cause further changes to the ocean and atmosphere. These interactions can have dramatic physical, chemical, biological, economic, and social consequences.
According to a recent survey in the journal Science, many teachers spend little time or lack the science content to effectively teach climate change. Here are some resources that you can use to teach this principle.
Curriculum Resources:
- Climate Variability and Change – Classroom activities for grades 1-12 from Gulf of Maine Research Institute
- Calculating Evaporation from the Ocean
- Climate Change and Your Watershed
- Free iBook about Climate Change aimed at ages 9-11
- Patterns: Investigating Weather and Climate
Additional links for more information:
- Summit: The 2016 NEOSEC Ocean Literacy Summit focused on this principle.
- News: NEwswave posts on climate, climate change and weather