Originally published September 8 2005
Oregon coast experiences global warming-like effects
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
For the third time in the past four years, Oregon's Pacific coast is experiencing unusual fluctuating conditions, with dead birds and a decline in fisheries -- occurrences researchers say are consistent with the predicted effects of global warming.
This is the third year in the past four that has demonstrated significantly unusual ocean events, the researchers say, a period unlike any on record.
This year's ocean behavior is particularly bizarre, and there is no proof what is causing it.
But extreme variability such as this, OSU researchers say, is consistent with what scientists believe will occur as a result of global warming.
"All the climate models predict increased variability associated with global climate change," said Jane Lubchenco, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology at OSU.
In May and June when seasonal "upwelling" events should have begun that bring cold, nutrient rich water to the surface, the ocean was 8-11 degrees warmer than usual and had chlorophyll levels, a measure of productivity, about one-fifth to one-sixth of normal, said Lubchenco.
The resulting intense bloom of microscopic plants coupled with low oxygen levels near the ocean floor set the stage for another "dead zone" event this year.
"We can't yet prove that the ocean changes you are seeing in the Pacific are the result of global warming," Neilson said.
Global warming will cause high pressure systems and other weather phenomena to become more intense and concentrated, Neilson said, and sometimes get unusual systems locked into place for weeks or months at a time - just like the events that last winter gave Southern California drenching rains while the usually-rainy Pacific Northwest enjoyed a balmy winter.
"These climatic blocking patterns can also persist for longer periods, year after year and even for decades," Neilson said.
A global oceanic "index" that measures such factors as temperature and barometric pressure showed a fundamental increase in volatility beginning with the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Neilson said.
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