An Annual Blast of Pacific Cold Water Did Not Occur, Alarming Scientists

40 mitchbob 9 9/13/2025, 1:54:31 PM nytimes.com ↗

Comments (9)

reader9274 · 4m ago
Why is most climate research fear-driven? Or is it the folks that interpret that science that make it so to get clicks? No other science field does this. You don't see "lab mice will come steal your wallet after new experiments fail" in bio research. The discourse would be more effective if we stick to the facts without end-of-world proclamations.
tyleo · 1m ago
Because people are afraid of the climate collapsing but they aren't afraid of mice stealing their wallets.

I don't think this is unique to climate research, I can imagine headlines, "Ground shakes beneath Mt. Rainier, alarming scientists," or "Ebola spreads unconstrained in Africa, alarming scientists."

It's fear driven because it might kill people. Unlike something along the lines of, "Mars mission fails as rocket explodes." That's sad but not necessarily causing harm across the population.

dvrj101 · 30m ago
dvrj101 · 29m ago
The ocean generates 50 percent of the oxygen we need, absorbs 30 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 percent of the excess heat generated by these emissions.
echelon · 26m ago
Are there any clathrate-gun [1] style hypothesis that predict the entire gas exchange system could fall into runaway collapse? I'd love to read up on them, if so.

Slow changes, a return to a Cretaceous-style climate, etc. are a very different story than an "overnight" exponential and unstoppable Venusification of the planet.

Slowly rising sea levels in Miami vs one day you wake up and can't breathe anymore. Very different situations.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

natebc · 6m ago
ashtakeaway · 21m ago
Somehow I get the feeling if they used the word 'mass' instead of 'blob', a lot more readers would take the subject seriously.
tokai · 2m ago
Its a common word used for large areas of ocean water of anomalous temperature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob_(Pacific_Ocean)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_blob

Blob is perfectly good word, and much more precise in this case than 'mass'.

mitchbob · 2h ago