methane

The world’s oceans are changing. Dead zones, disappearing marine life, acidification, rising water levels and warming temperatures are all contributing to a crisis for marine ecosystems.

This summer saw the warmest ocean surface temperatures on record for July (62.5 F), surpassing the last record high in 1998, and combined average global land and ocean surface temperature that ranked fifth-warmest since global records began in 1880 according to data from the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA data also showed the highest ocean surface temperature on record for June and the sixth warmest June on record for land temperatures.

For both months, ocean surface temperatures were 1.06 degrees F higher than the 20th century average. While this may seem like a small variation, it has a tremendous impact.

“Based on the physics of the oceans being such a vast reservoir for heat, small changes in ocean temperatures are massively significant for the amount of energy in the overall planetary climate system,” says Derek Arndt, Director of the Climate Monitoring Branch of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

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• Leslie Berliant's blog
• 2 comments

Late last month, Andreas Troge, the head of Germany's federal environmental agency, made a bold statement: He told people to stop eating so much meat—not on behalf of their cholesterol count, but on behalf of the planet.

Troge suggested in an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung that Germans should stick with the "European tradition of the 'Sunday roast'" and reorient their consumption patterns to imitate those of Mediterranean countries—"more fish and vegetables"—to reduce their contribution to global warming.

The suggestion was stunning coming from a high government official, particularly in a country with a meat-heavy diet.

Eating less beef has long been fashionable among food cognoscenti, but now it's going to be in vogue for another reason – beef production is a massive driver of global warming through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the two weeks since Troge spoke up, officials in Australia and Cincinnati, Ohio, have been emboldened to publicly discuss the need for planet-conscious diets with less meat.