Ocean Heat Goes Ballistic

Climate science, over the past few decades, especially since the turn of the new century, has increasingly identified trouble spots with ecosystems that support life on Earth. These crucial ecosystems are stressed. But not many of the scientific reports of the past couple of decades compares to a bone-chilling new study of massive ocean heat accumulation in the year 2025, published January 14^th, 2026, ScienceDaily: The Ocean Absorbed a Stunning Amount of Heat in 2025. Sources: Institute of Atmospheric Physics and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

That report lays out stark details: “In 2025 alone, the ocean gained 23 Zetta Joules (23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of energy, of heat). That amount of energy is roughly equal to about 37 years of total global primary energy use at 2023 levels (~620 Exa Joules per year). The findings are based on work by more than 50 scientists representing 31 research institutions across the globe.”

In other words, it is equivalent to every power plant, every car, every light bulb, and every device on Earth continuously in use for 37 years. This is how much extra heat the oceans absorbed in 2025, in one year!

The ocean is Earth’s primary heat sink absorbing 90% of extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases like CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels by people filling up cars at local gas stations. As such, ocean heat content (OHC) is the most reliable measure of long-term climate change. The question therefore arises, how much heat content can the oceans absorb and what happens when it’s excessive, like it is right now?

OHC has been setting new records, every year, for nine consecutive years. The consequences are spelled out in the study: “Warmer ocean surfaces increase evaporation and rainfall, making storms more intense and extreme weather events more likely. In 2025, these effects contributed to severe flooding and disruption across much of Southeast Asia, prolonged drought in the Middle East, and flooding in Mexico and the Pacific Northwest.” In other words, regardless of the event, it’s extreme, which is the fingerprint of global warming.

CO2 Impact on Oceans

“The primary impact of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions on the ocean is the rapid warming of ocean waters, which significantly reduces the ocean’s capacity to hold oxygen—a critical lifeline for species survival. Rising temperatures also drive ocean acidification—weakening marine organisms, disrupting ecosystems, altering the physiology of numerous species, and triggering mass die-offs.” (World’s Oceans Hit Record Heat in 2025 at Great Economic and Social Costs, Global Issues, UN Bureau Report, Jan. 22, 2026)

“This year may be remembered as one of the gravest for marine mammals on record. Or, more worryingly, a sign that our ocean environment is changing so drastically that in some places and seasons, it’s becoming uninhabitable for the life it holds.” (Marine Mammals are Dying in Record Numbers Along the California Coast, LA Times, October 3, 2025)

Solutions

There are no quick solutions to a problem that has been building at an indeterminate scale for at least 200 years but on a determinate accelerating scale since the year 2000. Global warming is quickly becoming a misnomer, s/b, global heating. The proof of acceleration is easy to discover, check out worldwide glacier meltdowns, which are melting 36% faster today than at the turn of the new century. Thirty-six percent is a precise figure as the GRACE satellites of NASA/German Aerospace Center (thankfully, hopefully, not on Trump’s hit list) have continuously measured glacier mass loss since 2002. Fresh water sources dwindle and sea levels rise; these are not good trends, and if properly explained politically as major risks to every individual family in America, which is enhanced by current policy directives, it could be a game-changer, powerful political capital, in favor of reversing everything the Trump administration kills in science.

For people interested in individual solutions, go to: Climate Responsible for guidance tailored to individuals. Alternatively, climate.gov is a good source: What Can We Do To Slow or Stop Global Warming? This site is part of NOAA, which unfortunately is on the Trump chopping block for the upcoming budget; it is not known whether this solutions web site will remain.

Meanwhile, on an international scale, COP UN meetings have repeatedly failed to impact global warming due to the “consensus-based voting structure.” This allows fossil fuel-dependent nations, like Saudi Arabia and Russia, to block (veto) meaningful policy on emissions. Recently, Brazil/COP30 (2025) sessions ended with weak agreements, failing to mandate a clear fossil fuel phase-out. Once again, major fossil fuel producers obstructed efforts. And the United States, by withdrawing completely, has opened the door for “me-too rejections” of serious climate change mitigation policies, as an expanding worldwide right-wing challenges what’s ‘perceived’ to be liberal policies.

“Not having the United States participate substantively in future annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to monitor progress and set Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is, in itself, a setback. The United States is still the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It is also the world’s largest economy and has been a formidable influence in global politics. Indeed, the system of relationships that Trump is dismantling was largely created by the United States in the years following the Second World War,.. Before November 2024, assuming the continuation of Biden’s climate mitigation policies, the United States was likely to meet the goal of a 50–52% reduction in emissions by 2030 relative to a 2005 baseline.” (The Trump Administration and Climate Policy: The Effects of Right-Wing Populism, European Center for Populism Studies, Jan. 20, 2026). Bidenism is gone!

Trump policies on global warming directly contribute to a potential worst-case situation, i.e., a catastrophic mass extinction event of marine life not seen in over 250 million years. “Global heating is causing such a drastic change to the world’s oceans that it risks a mass extinction event of marine species that rivals anything that’s happened in the Earth’s history over tens of millions of years, new research has warned.” (Global Heating Risks Most Cataclysmic Extinction of Marine life in 250m Years, The Guardian, Aug. 28, 2022)

That Guardian-referenced study was four years ago. Subsequent studies of ocean conditions are much worse. The current ocean heat situation is, in fact, spooking scientists.

The Dreaded Fundamental Climate Shift Expressed by Ocean Heat Content:

This figure shows changes in heat content of the top 700 meters of the world’s oceans between 1955 and 2023 (US EPA). Thousands of Argo Floats strategically placed throughout the world’s oceans linked to satellites provide precise temperature measurements.

The 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. A terrestrial day-after-day heatwave of suffocating temperatures for 500 days unending has never been recorded on land, but the oceans just experienced it. This shocking event, never recorded before, puts the entire global warming scenario on a new level that’s predictably negative.

This calls for the biggest “clarion bell shrill” in modern climate history: Do Something Constructive!

The United States needs to switch to climate change mitigation policies and downplay fossil fuels as soon as possible.

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