Great Barrier Reef

• Ocean temperatures have been steadily rising due to human-caused global warming, which in turn means record hottest years have become increasingly common.
• The last time ocean temperature records were broken was 2016 and before that it was 2015.
• The last year we experienced a record cold year was way back at the start of the 20th century.
• But what is remarkable about the past year is the huge ongoing spike in global ocean temperature which began in April last year.

How big is the jump in heat?

You can see the surge in heat very clearly in the near-global ocean surface temperature data.
The trend is clear to see. Earlier years (in blue) are typically cooler than later years (in red), reflecting the relentless march of global warming. But even with this trend, there are outliers. In 2023 and 2024, you can see a huge jump above previous years. These record temperatures have been widespread, with the oceans of the southern hemisphere, northern hemisphere and the tropics all reaching record temperatures.

What’s behind the surge?

• The extra heat pouring into the oceans results in a gradual rise in temperature, with the trend possibly accelerating.
• But this alone doesn’t explain why we have experienced such a big jump in the last year.
• Other natural heat-transferring oscillations, such as the Indian Ocean Dipole or the North Atlantic Oscillation, may play a role.
• Read more:
  An 'extreme' heatwave has hit the seas around the UK and Ireland – here's what's going on

Why is this important?

• But the extra heat manifests underwater as an unprecedented series of major marine heatwaves.
• If the heat spikes too much and for too long, they have to move or die.
• Marine heatwaves can lead to mass death or mass migration for marine mammals, seabirds, fish and invertebrates.
• They can cause vital kelp forests and seagrass meadows to die, leaving the animals depending on them without shelter or food.

What’s going to happen next?

• In the next few months, forecasts suggest we have a fair chance of heading into another La Niña.
• If this eventuates, we might see slightly cooler temperatures than the new normal, but it’s still too early to know for sure.
• Read more:
  Ocean heat is off the charts – here's what that means for humans and ecosystems around the world

• Alex Sen Gupta receives funding from receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
• Thomas Wernberg receives funding from The Australian Research Council, The Norwegian Research Council, The Schmidt Marine Technology Partners and Canopy Blue.

• But the world will likely pass that threshold within a decade, and global warming is showing little sign of slowing.
• The world is already facing natural disasters of epic proportions as temperatures rise.
• The only known method able to quickly arrest this temperature rise is climate engineering.
• Both strategies would reflect a small amount of sunlight back to space to cool the planet.

• One of the largest concerns for many countries when it comes to climate change is national security.
• Could climate engineering help reduce the national security risks of climate change, or would it make things worse?

The massive problem of climate change

• Since the industrial revolution, humans have put about 1.74 trillion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, largely by burning fossil fuels.
• Countries could pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and lock it away, a process called carbon dioxide removal.
• As long as the amount added is larger than the amount removed, droughts, floods, hurricanes, heat waves and sea level rise, among numerous other consequences of climate change, will keep getting worse.

Who might try climate engineering and how?

• Various government research arms are already gaming out scenarios, looking at who might decide to carry out climate engineering and how.
• Climate engineering is expected to be cheap relative to the cost of ending greenhouse gas emissions.
• However, a single country or coalition of countries witnessing the harms of climate change could make a cost and geopolitical calculation and decide to begin climate engineering on its own.

Creating risks for neighbors raises conflict alarm

• So, a climate engineering project in one country is likely to affect temperature and rainfall in neighboring countries.
• Some studies show that a moderate amount of climate engineering would likely have widespread benefits compared with climate change.
• Once climate engineering is deployed, countries may be more likely to blame climate engineering for extreme events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts, regardless of the evidence.
• On top of that, the physical effects of climate engineering depend on who is doing it and what they’re doing.

What’s next?

• It’s hard to say whether climate engineering would create more conflict, or if it could defuse international tensions by reducing climate change.
• At the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2024, African countries called for a moratorium on climate engineering, urging all precaution.
• Put simply, climate engineering is a technology that can’t be ignored, but more research is needed so policymakers can make informed decisions.

Ben Kravitz receives funding relevant to this work from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation. Tyler Felgenhauer receives funding relevant to this work from the National Science Foundation and from Resources for the Future.

• In these camp communities, unique cultural practices can arise.
• In other words, camps foster new and unique cultural practices.
• But the cultural practices in the Bhutanese camps are now threatened because the refugees and their cultural practices don’t have legal protections.

Protecting remaining refugees

• He was part of one of the world’s largest resettlement programs for refugees.
• These refugees are sitting in limbo, with their homes, their community and their unique culture having no legal protections.
• There aren’t many pathways to protecting refugees once the UNHCR is not involved.
• It is necessary to think creatively to identify possible solutions to protect these remaining refugees.

Unique cultural practices

• UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage might be a way to protect these practices and, by extension, the refugees who remain after UNHCR withdraws from a camp.
• But UNESCO also safeguards cultural practices, such as dance, theatre, food and craftsmanship.
• Through the intangible heritage convention, unique cultural practices and practices at risk of being lost can gain recognition.
• The hope is recognition will support sustainable development, open up funding pathways and ensure cultural knowledge does not disappear.

Towards a fairer process

• To be accessible to all communities, the form should be available in a variety of languages.
• When examining the nomination process, it became clear some minority groups, refugees and stateless people will struggle to have their cultural heritage recognised.
• The current process means refugees are subject to the whims of nations’ priorities.
• The nomination process could be modified so communities can self-verify.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• NTT and ClimateForce today announced a partnership to create the world’s first Smart Rainforest using NTT’s Smart Management Platform technology.
• ClimateForce is regenerating a section of Australia’s Daintree Rainforest that had been razed for agriculture decades ago.
• “ClimateForce is a proving ground for technologies that protect biodiversity and help mitigate climate change,” said Barney Swan, CEO and Co-founder of ClimateForce.
• In addition to providing operating support for the initiative, NTT DATA is also contributing funds to help ClimateForce purchase and protect the regenerated land in perpetuity.