Continuing my series on examining my navel.
Dear Mr. Neptune,
Your oceans of the world are truly breath-taking. The power you can display in the odd wave or million through to the tranquility you so often also display defy rational explanations.
I have had the profound experience of sailing upon your waters, dear Mr. Neptune, over a number of years sailing back and forth between Cyprus and Turkey. Not a long distance but still sufficient to experience being solo on a yacht day and night.
Then on my way sailing back to Plymouth, SW England, the magical, almost primeval, feeling of being alone on the Atlantic Ocean. Looking up at the night sky, feeling so insignificant, so infinitesimally minute with 500 miles of open ocean in all directions and those stars above my head.
No question, that practically everything about your oceans is beyond the understanding of us humans. Indeed, I had to look up online how much water there is on Earth to discover there is:
It’s roughly 326 million cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers), according to a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Because I simply didn’t have a clue.
And knowing there are approximately 326 million cubic miles of water doesn’t help because I am still left not having a clue as to what that means!
So, thank goodness, Mr. Neptune this is all a ‘walk in the park’ for you!
But I do have a question for you.
What do you make of this?
The image is cropped from the following:
The description of these figures is:
Figure. (upper) Change in global upper-level (0–2000 m) ocean heat content since 1958. Each bar shows the annual mean relative to a 1981–2010 baseline. (lower) Annual mean ocean heat content anomaly in 2017 relative to a 1981–2010 baseline.
And it was taken from research undertaken by Lijing Cheng and Jiang Zhu and found on the web here.
Ocean Heat Content
Owing to its large heat capacity, the ocean accumulates the warming derived from human activities; indeed, more than 90% of Earth’s residual heat related to global warming is absorbed by the ocean (IPCC, Cheng et al. 2017). As such, the global ocean heat content record robustly represents the signature of global warming and is impacted less by weather-related noise and climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña events (Cheng et al. 2018). On the other hand, ocean thermal expansion due to ocean temperature change contributes substantially (30%~50%) to the sea level change, which can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and marine ecosystems. Therefore, monitoring the OHC changes and understanding its variation are crucial for climate change.
Is it possible, Mr. Neptune, that even you as the master of all our oceans is worried about the future?
I hope not but I do fear your answer.
Sincerely,
Paul
Learning from Dogs 
I love the ocean. Whenever I need to calm down, I find that being near a body of water soothes my soul.
Yes, it is concerning to have the water temperatures rising. Certainly doesn’t help when in the throes of hurricane season.
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Know where you are coming from, Susan. But for me that body of water needs to be calm to be soothing. In my experience an angry ocean is anything but soothing!
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Stressful especially when navigating a craft.
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Great script Paul, and good questions, and I expect Mr Neptune is also worried as to why the fish in his large ocean are being washed ashore dead and why Dolphins and Whales are beaching themselves..
Did you hear about the Beluga Whale in the river Thames this week?
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Yes, we did read about that whale. Wonder if it made its way safely back to the North Sea? One hopes so!
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Yes I hope so too, the story died almost as quickly as it arose..
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That’s the media for you!
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I heard about that too Sue. I myself have seen harbour porpoises inland far up the Trent river in Gainsborough. A worrying trend for a cetacean that belongs in Scottish coastal waters.
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Yes indeed Colette a worrying trend.. Hope alls well, I popped into your blog… Hugs
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There is a rally in Portland Oregon on 5 Oct, 2018, against the destruction of habitat that will lead to extinction of Southern Orca.
Mr Neptune will be there I think. 🐋🐳
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https://pdxactivist.org/events/3307
Link for info, if anyone going…
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Oh, I wish we lived closer to Portland for Jean and I would attend that rally. But I will promote it here on Learning from Dogs. Shame, for we are in Portland on the evening of the 10th.
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Lots to think about. I do know what you are talking about though looking up at the stars at night from a smallish vessel with no land in sight. It is quite amazing and over powering at the same time.
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It is a very special sight. and that’s an understatement! I recall a night when about 4 days out of Horta in The Azores, heading for Plymouth, when there was such a clear, still night, plus the absence of any moonlight, that one could see the stars almost down to the horizon all 360 degrees around me and my boat. I fell in love with the night sky then and that love has never left me!
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