Southern Ocean Circulation Reversed | Hacker News Reader

Southern Ocean Circulation Reversed

iefworld.org

55 pointscrymer1117 comments

I suspect this won't be up here long, HN has a pretty strong but unofficial and "community" enforced policy against bad news, especially relating to climate.

But that won't be an issue for long since climate change data will soon continually start disappearing. I seriously never imagined that we would lose Mauna Loa [0], which we might.

Given that even in this community, which is relatively data/science literate, there is enough energy to remove this content during a time when information is plenty, in just a few short a few short years, and in the absence of data, I suspect most people will revert to completely misunderstanding and underestimating the truly existential risks we are facing, despite the observable evidence being more clear than ever.

Already I've noticed in the reporting of the most recent Texas floods there is scant mention of climate change (sure you can find it if you look, but it should be the headline)

edit: as predicted, it's already gone!

0. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-mauna-loa-observatory-captured...

are we reading the the same HN? mine has climate soapboxing in every other thread.

See earlier: Major reversal in ocean circulation detected in the Southern Ocean

https://www.icm.csic.es/en/news/major-reversal-ocean-circula...

464 points|3 days ago|309 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44461222

This is coming on the heels of David Suzuki stating in an interview that he no longer believes we can beat the momentum of climate change (adding that the best we can do right now is likely just hunker down), all while politicians in the US blame floods on anthropogenic climate change in the stupidest way possible -- by trying to pass legislation to ban chemtrails and weather control machines.

All three of these things, in the span of just a few days.

This is a grim, but just as importantly deeply stupid time to be paying attention to the climate. I'm having a hard time finding an optimistic angle about all of this right now.

> This change in water composition suggests that the deep ocean circulation in the Southern Hemisphere — known as the SMOC — is not only being altered, but has reversed. That is, instead of sinking into the depths, surface water is being replaced by deep water masses rising to the surface, bringing with them heat and carbon dioxide (CO₂) that had been trapped for centuries.

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44461222

I was interested to know how they measure water salinity from space, but the ESA page isn't very informative.

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureE...

Dr. Paul Beckwith (regular COP speaker) video on SMOC reversal: https://youtu.be/12Ch-NIYxvQ

About the source : "The International Environment Forum, as a Bahá'í-inspired professional organization for environment and sustainability, shares and upholds the principles and ideals of the Bahá'í Faith and supports its efforts to establish and promote peace, the unity of the human race, and an ever-advancing world civilization that preserves the ecological balance of the planet."

The linked IEF article isn't the source, simply one of many secondary media reports on a specific paper.

The source is this paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500440122#tab-contrib...

the #tab-contributors modifier should open a tab for you with a list of authors and their affiliations.

The two principal institutes supporting that study reported by the paper are the National Oceanographic Center (NOC, United Kingdom) and the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC).

Again? Well that's good.

Critical take: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/06/ocean-reversal-hyster...

This isn't a critical take, it's a cynical one. It's a climate change denial site. Suggest not bothering to follow this link, it's intellectually lazy. The central claims that the article's information isn't anywhere in the study. Which is misleading: the researchers have said these things elsewhere about the research in the study.

Just for the chuckle value, a critical critical take:

  Willis Eschenbach

    Credentials
      California Massage Certificate, Aames School of Massage, Oakland, CA. (1974).
      B.A., Psychology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA. (1975).

    Background
      Willis Eschenbach is a regular speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s International Conference on Climate Change, where he is described as a “carpenter and house builder” as well as an “amateur scientist.”

      Eschenbach has previously worked as a Construction Manager at Taunovo Bay Resort in Fiji, Sport Fishing guide in Alaska, and more recently as an Accounts/IT Senior Manager with South Pacific Oil.

https://www.desmog.com/willis-eschenbach/

Yes, I know, credentialism means you must immediately ignore anything he has to say. Yet he writes papers on climate science, especially on the effects of volcanic eruptions, and he does a better job of archiving code and data (and documenting how he sources the data) than most. Maybe you should try reading what I linked.

what are you seeing in this article? to me it looks like bog standard conspiracy drivel...

The article I linked says that the _paper_ that TFA refers to[0] says nothing about a reversal of the current, only a reversal of the freshening of surface water on the polar southern ocean. Is that not indeed a correct reading of the underlying paper? That's a simple yes or no question. See for yourself[0]!

[0] https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2500440122

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