Earth’s Changing Oceans. Physical Oceanographer Nathan Bindoff

Professor Nathan Bindoff, a physical oceanographer at the University of Tasmania, researches ocean changes and the hydrological cycle concerning salinity. He predicts fire catastrophes and studies ocean oxygen decline linking these issues to human-caused climate change. Bindoff is also a lead author for IPCC reports, impacting global climate policy.
Transcript
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Catherine:What's your PI.
Catherine:Professor Nathan Bindoff and his background in physical
Catherine:oceanography is so extensive.
Catherine:There is no way I can cover his massive research studies,
Catherine:but we can narrow it down.
Catherine:Well, Nathan is a professor of physical oceanography at the
Catherine:university of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic studies.
Catherine:And my gosh, he was the coordinating lead author on the ocean's chapter in the
Catherine:al panel on climate change in:Catherine:a certificate for his own contribution of Al Gore winning the Nobel peace prize.
Catherine:That is just so amazing.
Catherine:And then again, in:Catherine:climate change report.
Catherine:Well professor Bindoff and his colleagues documented some of the
Catherine:first evidence of the high melt rates of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Catherine:His most recent work is on documenting the decline in oxygen content of the
Catherine:oceans and dynamics of the Southern ocean.
Catherine:When he's not on a boat doing research, he tries to be on his own boat that he built
Catherine:from wood, a hobby that he so much enjoys.
Catherine:And now he is here to talk about all of this and what the
Catherine:future holds for our planet.
Catherine:Professor Nathan Bindoff . Thank you so much for coming on the show to
Catherine:share your amazing positive imprints.
nathanbindoff on::Thank you, Catherine.
nathanbindoff on::That's a lovely introduction.
Catherine:This is so incredible to finally meet you after reading so many
Catherine:articles and reading your research and hearing about you from other researchers.
Catherine:There's so much to talk about and I'm going to kind of let you guide as to
Catherine:what research you want to chat about.
Catherine:Professor Bindoff explains who he is and how he came to be part of the
Catherine:intergovernmental panel on climate change.
nathanbindoff on::Oh, Nathan's a a practical, pragmatic
nathanbindoff on::sort of guy that likes to, actually I, I often, draw parallels to, uh, parboil
nathanbindoff on::detective stories where, you know, the, the, the lone detective is out there.
nathanbindoff on::Well, private eye is out there and he's taking the clues and
nathanbindoff on::kind of discovering something.
nathanbindoff on::And, and that's kind of how I feel about science
nathanbindoff on::actually.
nathanbindoff on::You know, you, you look at observations, you discover things, you compare them,
nathanbindoff on::you get evidence and you build a story.
nathanbindoff on::And it's just like that parboiled detective guy, that those parboil
nathanbindoff on::detective stories where you figure out what's going on and then you
nathanbindoff on::write it up and turn it into a paper.
nathanbindoff on::And the pragmatic part of me is the part that likes to, turn this sort
nathanbindoff on::of discoveries in science, into things that are important and relevant to
nathanbindoff on::people who think about the environment.
nathanbindoff on::So you know, the participation in IPCC, for instance, Was sort of a
nathanbindoff on::fluke, a wonderful fluke, by the way.
nathanbindoff on::I was in the corridor one day and one of my ex supervisors came by and he said, oh,
nathanbindoff on::you should, you should nominate for IPCC.
nathanbindoff on::And that's all he said.
nathanbindoff on::And that night I went away, uh, put in a nomination and
nathanbindoff on::that began my career in IPCC.
nathanbindoff on::I was invited to be a coordinating lead author in that fourth assessment
nathanbindoff on::report, which was the one that actually led to a moment in history where
nathanbindoff on::had been very strong through:nathanbindoff on::And then suddenly the stern report came out and that talked about the
nathanbindoff on::economic consequences of climate change.
nathanbindoff on::And Al Gore had his movie on the inconvenient truth.
nathanbindoff on::th assessment came out and in:nathanbindoff on::2008, we had a change in our narrative around, uh, the acceptance of
nathanbindoff on::climate change and the need to act.
nathanbindoff on::And it was a terrific moment.
nathanbindoff on::And then it was sort of topped off by IPCC winning with Al
nathanbindoff on::Gore, the, Nobel peace prize.
nathanbindoff on::And, and, and I actually liked the fact that it's not, it's not a, a
nathanbindoff on::prize for scientific excellence.
nathanbindoff on::It's not a prize for intellectual endeavor.
nathanbindoff on::Actually, it's a prize for creating an opportunity if you like for peace.
nathanbindoff on::So you can see, I, I like the observations, I like the detail,
nathanbindoff on::like a narrative, and then actually, if it does good, if it does good,
nathanbindoff on::then that makes me very happy.
Catherine:We talked about some of his quotes and I brought up this one.
Catherine:"When I commenced my career, the question of whether the ocean state
Catherine:had changed was completely open.
Catherine:It was a voyage of discovery."
Catherine:Well, professor Bindoff has been on this voyage of discovery, bringing back his
Catherine:research to share with the IPCC., the intergovernmental panel on climate change.
Catherine:And I asked professor Bindoff about the history of the IPCC
Catherine:and the state of the ocean.
nathanbindoff on::So let's, let's talk IPCC for a moment.
nathanbindoff on::IPCC was a, a vision and that vision was an understanding that the changing
nathanbindoff on::composition of the atmosphere.
nathanbindoff on::So this was for measurements of atmospheric CO2.
nathanbindoff on::The changing composition of the atmosphere was going to influence the planet.
nathanbindoff on::At that moment there was a decision and it was in the time of, Margaret
nathanbindoff on::Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
nathanbindoff on::A decision was made to create a panel.
nathanbindoff on::And that panel was a joint effort between United nations environment program and
nathanbindoff on::the world meteorological organization.
nathanbindoff on::And what happened was that that panel was created very perceptively it excluded
nathanbindoff on::it's not quite true, but it is basically excluded non-governmental organizations.
nathanbindoff on::So they made it a report to governments.
nathanbindoff on::And because it's a United Nations process, that process demands that every country
nathanbindoff on::has a, what they call a focal point.
nathanbindoff on::And that focal point in each country is the avenue by
nathanbindoff on::which the IPCC reports, , and.
nathanbindoff on::Development and their commissioning is, created within each of
nathanbindoff on::the countries that participate.
nathanbindoff on::United Nations is 195 countries and almost all participate in the IPCC process.
nathanbindoff on::So this process immediately meant that, every report is well understood.
nathanbindoff on::at some levels of governments.
nathanbindoff on::That's unusual relative to other kinds of reports.
nathanbindoff on::There's a similar report around, , chlorofluorocarbons,
nathanbindoff on::in the upper atmosphere.
nathanbindoff on::And there's a similar process there.
nathanbindoff on::So that's basically the process around, but, , the IPCC, it
nathanbindoff on::was created in:nathanbindoff on::And it came from the inspiration of Bert Bolin.
nathanbindoff on::Bert Bolin was a, Swedish, atmospherics, scientist, famous actually.
nathanbindoff on::And it was him plus a couple of others.
nathanbindoff on::And the first report was quite very, very thin.
nathanbindoff on::Actually, it didn't even say that humans were influencing climate, but
nathanbindoff on::curiously, that report was enough to create the United Nations Framework
nathanbindoff on::Convention on Climate Change.
nathanbindoff on::And that's the body that runs the conference of parties every year, which
nathanbindoff on::negotiates, , the processes around emissions and hopefully emissions
nathanbindoff on::reductions, as we go into the future.
Catherine:You've given a wonderful explanation on the IPCC.
Catherine:And I appreciate that because I was unaware of some of the history,
Catherine:and I was definitely unaware in how much of the partaking you have
Catherine:had in this historical and most important piece that is going to take
Catherine:us and is taking us into the future
Catherine:with regard to legislation and changes in lifestyle.
nathanbindoff on::Yeah.
nathanbindoff on::So IPCC evolves actually.
nathanbindoff on::And in the first report, there was no mention of the oceans and in
Catherine:oh, there was no mention of oceans.
nathanbindoff on::Correct.
nathanbindoff on::And then the second assessment, there was, uh, no mention really either.
nathanbindoff on::And then in the third assessment, they talked about sea-level and
nathanbindoff on::then in the fourth assessment, they actually introduced an oceans chapter.
nathanbindoff on::And, and the reason an oceans chapter was introduced was because there
nathanbindoff on::had been a bit of a revolution going on in the oceanography community.
nathanbindoff on::It goes to the first question you asked.
nathanbindoff on::The oceans were considered to be static, unchanging.
nathanbindoff on::They had so much, , inertia that they were basically unable to change.
nathanbindoff on::They were kind of a fixed fly wheel.
nathanbindoff on::If you like, circulating the global ocean.
nathanbindoff on::And then increasingly oceanographers and atmospheric scientists have
nathanbindoff on::understood that there was El Nino.
nathanbindoff on::Then we came to understand actually the deep ocean was changing subtly as well.
nathanbindoff on::And we found that, that there was on starting to appear on global scales.
nathanbindoff on::So what really happened was that we understood that the oceans too were
nathanbindoff on::responding, that they weren't static and that they were changing and that
nathanbindoff on::knowledge and the amount of literature that was starting to accumulate at
nathanbindoff on::that time allowed for the introduction of this chapter around oceans.
nathanbindoff on::It's the building of the momentum around the science.
nathanbindoff on::It was a increased realization that the oceans were important that
nathanbindoff on::they were changing and evolving.
nathanbindoff on::And, at that time, we believe that the ocean, uh, sea level change was through
nathanbindoff on::primarily through, thermal expansion.
nathanbindoff on::So that's where you warm up the ocean and it expands.
nathanbindoff on::And that's the biggest contributor to the rising sea levels.
nathanbindoff on::That's actually changing again, so that rising sea levels, are now
nathanbindoff on::dominated by the melt of the ice caps, both Antarctica, Greenland, and, the
nathanbindoff on::glaciers mountain glaciers as well.
nathanbindoff on::So the heating of the oceans, isn't the biggest component to
nathanbindoff on::the rising sea level anymore.
nathanbindoff on::So that's a new level of knowledge that we've actually got.
nathanbindoff on::So this is part of this voyage of discovery where we're actually learning
nathanbindoff on::more progressively more about the earth's system in response to climate change
Catherine:One of Nathan's earliest discoveries was that of the planet's
Catherine:melting Antarctic ice shelves.
Catherine:He and his colleagues made measurements, studied the data and concluded
Catherine:something absolutely extraordinary.
nathanbindoff on::With colleagues.
nathanbindoff on::Um, so I wrote some early papers around, the melt of , the Amery ice shelf.
nathanbindoff on::In fact, I remember a conversation.
nathanbindoff on::I said, oh, 50% of this.
nathanbindoff on::ice shelf is melting, from the ocean, from the underside.
nathanbindoff on::It's a paper that's buried in the past, the glaciologists
nathanbindoff on::telling me that was impossible.
nathanbindoff on::Well, actually what's happened is this has become a prime research, , activity
nathanbindoff on::here in Hobart and elsewhere in the world.
nathanbindoff on::It was the capacity for those ice sheets to have a huge, huge impact
nathanbindoff on::on rising sea level, is enormous.
nathanbindoff on::I've used a lot of superlatives there, but it's true.
nathanbindoff on::There were some papers just recently, which some people are backing away from
nathanbindoff on::a little bit, but they were predicting 16 meters of sea projecting, 16 meters of
nathanbindoff on::evel from Antarctica alone by:nathanbindoff on::So think about 16 meters of sea level.
nathanbindoff on::That's enormous.
nathanbindoff on::These estimates, are reducing, , but they're still very large.
nathanbindoff on::Just recently in the report that we did on oceans and cryosphere and a
nathanbindoff on::changing climate, the governments' insisted on showing the sea level
nathanbindoff on::rise projections out to:nathanbindoff on::So for a lot of people,:nathanbindoff on::but the sea level projections were showing, at the upper range, five
nathanbindoff on::s of future sea level rise by:nathanbindoff on::Now, just to give a context, I think if it's eight meters, we can
nathanbindoff on::row in our boat to the footstep of, Capitol hill and step out.
nathanbindoff on::Of course, in the case of the Thames parliament, uh, we
nathanbindoff on::could step through the windows.
nathanbindoff on::Uh, uh, you know, uh, most of Florida has disappeared, south Australia.
nathanbindoff on::I think if it goes to eight meters, we can have a ocean in the middle of Australia.
nathanbindoff on::So, so, you know, these are very significant, profound,
nathanbindoff on::possibilities for, , future, sea level in an unmitigated world.
Catherine:that's key.
nathanbindoff on::that's the key.
nathanbindoff on::And so, so it hasn't happened of course.
nathanbindoff on::Um, it's, it's something that humans could, materially alter
nathanbindoff on::by making certain decisions.
nathanbindoff on::So it's sort of a value judgment.
nathanbindoff on::We can have this hotter, higher sea level world if we choose, or we can actually
nathanbindoff on::step back, we mitigate emissions and not have that hotter higher sea level world.
nathanbindoff on::And there are some distinct benefits,, I think that's my value judgment, if we
nathanbindoff on::were to reduce our emissions to zero.,
Catherine:oh, I think it is a decision that we do need.
Catherine:But there are people who won't change until it's legislated
nathanbindoff on::So some of the language we might use, we
nathanbindoff on::scientists might use is that we society needs a license to, reduce emissions.
nathanbindoff on::Society has the license to omit them.
nathanbindoff on::Yeah.
nathanbindoff on::Right.
nathanbindoff on::We now need a license to reduce them to zero.
nathanbindoff on::And, uh, that is actually something that no individual can accomplish.
nathanbindoff on::Right.
nathanbindoff on::So, so therefore means that, no individual country can
nathanbindoff on::actually accomplish it alone.
nathanbindoff on::So it does require a genuine collaboration of all the nations to actually agree,
nathanbindoff on::and then follow a pathway to reduced emissions, , to kind of avoid the
nathanbindoff on::worst outcomes of climate change.
nathanbindoff on::Some people may not realize, but we've already committed to
nathanbindoff on::quite a bit of climate change.
nathanbindoff on::We've already come one degree of warming since the instrumental
nathanbindoff on::record began say in the:nathanbindoff on::Now one degree of global warming means that actually over Australia,
nathanbindoff on::it's 1.4 times that, over the, Arctic it's, uh, even more and over
nathanbindoff on::the tropics, it's actually less.
nathanbindoff on::It's a global average.
nathanbindoff on::Some areas will have larger temperature changes than others.
nathanbindoff on::We've already committed to that.
nathanbindoff on::We can already see that, the water cycle over the planet has been altered.
nathanbindoff on::We can already see that Greenland and Antarctica are losing increased mass.
nathanbindoff on::That's something that's become very obvious in the last 20 years
nathanbindoff on::on this voyage of discovery.
nathanbindoff on::These things mean that we've already committed to those changes.
nathanbindoff on::If we switched off our missions tomorrow, right which is, would
nathanbindoff on::be an extraordinary thing.
nathanbindoff on::We would still warm up by another 0.3 to 0.4 degrees.
nathanbindoff on::if we want to avoid 0.5, we'd have very little time left
nathanbindoff on::actually, if you think about it.
nathanbindoff on::Cause if we've committed to a further 0.3 degrees, we've come 0.1.
nathanbindoff on::We've only got 0.2 of headroom.
Catherine:yes.
nathanbindoff on::so say you can see that it's now
nathanbindoff on::becoming a very urgent problem if you want to minimize the
nathanbindoff on::consequences of climate change..
nathanbindoff on::One of the things that became obvious was that the, interaction between the ocean
nathanbindoff on::and the ice sheet was quite significant.
nathanbindoff on::And so we actually did a wintertime voyage.
nathanbindoff on::We went to Antarctica in July.
nathanbindoff on::So that's our Southern hemisphere winter.
nathanbindoff on::We were there against the continent in a, , ice breaker and making measurements
nathanbindoff on::right in front of the, of a, um, it's not, not the biggest glacier.
nathanbindoff on::Uh, they'd called the Mertz glacier.
nathanbindoff on::It's actually that place has now broken off, but it was a source of
nathanbindoff on::very dense what we call Antarctic bottom water, very dense waters, some
nathanbindoff on::of the densest waters in the world.
nathanbindoff on::And because they're dense, they'll actually flow down the
nathanbindoff on::continental slope so they'll start off on the continental shelf
nathanbindoff on::they'll fly down the continental slope and then they end in the abyss and
nathanbindoff on::they actually drive a circulation that we call the overturning circulation.
nathanbindoff on::And this overturning circulation is an important component of the
nathanbindoff on::global thermohaline circulation or the global thermite.
nathanbindoff on::Global thermohaline circulation in the world.
nathanbindoff on::It's a driver of the deep ocean circulation.
nathanbindoff on::And as a consequence, we were there exactly to study that flow.
nathanbindoff on::Now I've talked about the deepest ocean that right there in front of the glacier,
nathanbindoff on::you also see and toughen the case, very fresh waters that reflect the melt of
nathanbindoff on::the bottom of the, glaciers themselves.
nathanbindoff on::And so we estimated that melt rate and we came to understand how much was being,
nathanbindoff on::lost by the ice sheet there in winter.
nathanbindoff on::What's new and more important to the story of climate change is we've realized
nathanbindoff on::that these glaciers are thinning..
nathanbindoff on::And so they're losing, they're not in equilibrium.
nathanbindoff on::If they're an equilibrium sea level would be unchanged, but
nathanbindoff on::actually they're thinning.
nathanbindoff on::And so sea level is actually going up as a consequence and the ice sheet itself
nathanbindoff on::on average is actually losing mass.
nathanbindoff on::So it's transferring mass that, in the Antarctic ice sheet itself into the
nathanbindoff on::oceans and causing sea level to go up.
nathanbindoff on::And that voyage was the first ever against the Antarctic continent in winter.
nathanbindoff on::That was:nathanbindoff on::That voyage, was actually on the relatively newly commissioned
nathanbindoff on::Aurora Australis so that was the Australian icebreaker.
nathanbindoff on::That ship has now come to end of life.
nathanbindoff on::And it's about to be replaced.
nathanbindoff on::There'll be a new Australian ice breaker that will replace the Aurora Australis.
nathanbindoff on::It was both a science ship and also a resupply, ship.
nathanbindoff on::And the moment that we actually got that, icebreaker, the Australian Antarcitc
nathanbindoff on::research took a quantum step upwards.
nathanbindoff on::That vessel gave Australia new capabilities that it
nathanbindoff on::didn't have prior to:nathanbindoff on::, it's interesting.
nathanbindoff on::I.
nathanbindoff on::I was sort of, um, a little bit hesitant.
nathanbindoff on::I have to say, there you go.
nathanbindoff on::I was a little bit hesitant about going to, , Antarctica working at sea.
nathanbindoff on::I've spent more than two years at sea now, uh, in my career.
nathanbindoff on::Right?
nathanbindoff on::So I've got over the hesitancy, but, the first trip I was, it was
nathanbindoff on::actually a particularly rough trip.
nathanbindoff on::I remember kind of feeling only 80,, 90%, 90% of the time.
nathanbindoff on::Uh, and, uh, that was, that was a tough voyage actually.
nathanbindoff on::And, and, you know, shaped my life.
nathanbindoff on::Sea-going life is actually a very pleasant once you get into the rhythm
nathanbindoff on::of it, it's a very simple life.
nathanbindoff on::And in the case of, research in Antarctica itself, you
nathanbindoff on::get the most fantastic views.
nathanbindoff on::You know, you're privileged in a way you, you see these ice sheets, um, they're,
nathanbindoff on::they're cliffs right there in front of the ocean and they're brilliantly white.
nathanbindoff on::And then, , the green of the green to sort of clear blue of the ocean and
nathanbindoff on::the contrast in color is, , striking.
nathanbindoff on::And then sometimes you see these ice sheets, they have icebergs and
nathanbindoff on::they're flat tabular kinds of icebergs.
nathanbindoff on::Icebergs
nathanbindoff on::always flattened tabula, typically in the Antarctic, quite unlike the icebergs
nathanbindoff on::in the, from the Greenland ice sheet.
nathanbindoff on::And, but often you see surf on the have wave cup platforms on them and
nathanbindoff on::you can see surf there and people,
nathanbindoff on::oh, that's cool.
nathanbindoff on::and some people have actually surfed them.
nathanbindoff on::So, so there are these very beautiful, there's this, sea
nathanbindoff on::life, some extraordinary sea life.
nathanbindoff on::The thing that's grabbed me the most actually, and what allows
nathanbindoff on::me to keep on going back is the science that's associated with it.
nathanbindoff on::The science in the end is the driver of this activity and, and
nathanbindoff on::the, the, joy of seeing it all is kind of a peripheral thing.
nathanbindoff on::Hate, hate to say it that way, but actually that's what,
nathanbindoff on::makes it for repeat trips.
Catherine:well, it certainly shows your dedication to not just the work
Catherine:that you're enjoying doing, but to the future of decision-making of our planet
Catherine:and populations that live on our planet.
Catherine:I think that's a huge responsibility for scientists to undertake when you know,
Catherine:very well that when you are doing this research and you're coming back with
Catherine:the statistics and the projections, and if we keep going the way we're going
Catherine:and things don't get changed, if you lose populations, animal populations,
Catherine:that's a, that's a heavy emotional burden.
Catherine:I think
nathanbindoff on::You're quite right that, but I'm not
nathanbindoff on::actually frustrated, by the world.
nathanbindoff on::I feel personally that I've actually done the work, I've made, made with the
nathanbindoff on::measurements, we've reported the science I've worked with IPCC with literally,
nathanbindoff on::you know, uh, 200 to 300 scientists with the similar kind of thinking.
nathanbindoff on::We've put these assessments together with, literally seven to 10,000
nathanbindoff on::different papers, we've assessed it.
nathanbindoff on::We've written the reports.
nathanbindoff on::They're being communicated to government.
nathanbindoff on::We have actually done our job.
nathanbindoff on::And, and, and in that sense, , I'm not frustrated because I can see that actually
nathanbindoff on::to make the decision and for society to agree to act on it is a big thing too.
nathanbindoff on::And we're in that process.
nathanbindoff on::So my task is really to continue to do that job, to communicate
nathanbindoff on::what's going on, how things are changing, why it might be urgent.
nathanbindoff on::Um, what are the consequences?
nathanbindoff on::Cause that's, that's the projections part.
nathanbindoff on::You know, we can look a bit into the future.
nathanbindoff on::If we continue on this path, this is what it will mean.
nathanbindoff on::And, and if we continue to do that, then hopefully the rest of society can find
nathanbindoff on::the solutions that allows to transform to the new world where we don't have
nathanbindoff on::emissions going into the atmosphere.
nathanbindoff on::We limit the amount of damage caused by climate change.
nathanbindoff on::And, we address the other problems that we need to solve.
nathanbindoff on::And that's a deeply society related question.
nathanbindoff on::I think scientists have done a terrific job in communicating it.
nathanbindoff on::It's deeply political to get to perhaps, uh, where we might like
nathanbindoff on::to be, but we're in this moment where we're trying to get there.
nathanbindoff on::That's why we have these institutions like IPCC, United Nations, the
nathanbindoff on::World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Framework
nathanbindoff on::Convention on Climate Change.
nathanbindoff on::It's why they have a meeting every year, every year, the ministers and
nathanbindoff on::bureaucrats of every country actually go and discuss how to make the decisions.
nathanbindoff on::They may not succeed, but they actually do do it, every year.
nathanbindoff on::So ya, there's a considerable effort going into the process and hopefully we'll turn
nathanbindoff on::the corner and, uh, really have action.
nathanbindoff on::We have had action in the past and that's why I'm not, uh, pessimistic.
nathanbindoff on::I think it is a solvable problem.
nathanbindoff on::There was a report just released that describes the fact that, you know, with a
nathanbindoff on::concerted effort, we could actually limit global warming to one and a half degrees.
nathanbindoff on::We could actually do it.
nathanbindoff on::And there are pathways to get there.
nathanbindoff on::Scientifically, there are pathways to get there and then sociologically
nathanbindoff on::and decision-making, let's see if we can get to those parts.
nathanbindoff on::So, so you can see I've stepped back from being frustrated
nathanbindoff on::sure.
nathanbindoff on::Sure.
nathanbindoff on::because I feel like we've,
nathanbindoff on::I've done as much as we can.
nathanbindoff on::Scientists have done as much as they can.
nathanbindoff on::And,
Catherine:you've great at what you are doing.
Catherine:and it's inspiring.
nathanbindoff on::and so, well, thank you.
nathanbindoff on::And so the other half of it is can we as society, accept that, make the
nathanbindoff on::value decision and transform itself.
nathanbindoff on::And the nice thing I think is that, , 20 years ago, renewables may not have
nathanbindoff on::been so cheap and you can see the huge increase in renewables in the landscape.
nathanbindoff on::And you can see many of the transformations of the energy business
nathanbindoff on::that are going on, and you can see the pressure on the coal industry.
nathanbindoff on::So you can see that there are forces and pressures trying to
nathanbindoff on::change the pathway that we were on.
nathanbindoff on::Emissions are still going up.
nathanbindoff on::We haven't turned the corner, but you can see that there's action.
nathanbindoff on::Not enough maybe.
nathanbindoff on::Maybe it's my worldview, but that narrative I gave was
nathanbindoff on::one, of precisely about hope.
nathanbindoff on::It was about the hope that we could collaborate globally and actually
nathanbindoff on::understand the innovations that we can embrace and change the course.
nathanbindoff on::And it does require the world to do it together.
Catherine:Bindoff predicted the catastrophic fires that would occur.
Catherine:Right now my own state of New Mexico is experiencing horrific fires, which are
Catherine:the absolute worst in recorded history.
Catherine:Well, professor Bindoff wrote papers years ago on this very subject.
Catherine:He wrote.
Catherine:"If the temperature rose and continues to rise
Catherine:sea levels could rise by three to four meters and Greenland could disappear.
Catherine:There would be at least a 20% increase in fire danger and catastrophic fire
Catherine:events would be more likely to occur."
nathanbindoff on::It's uh, the fire season has been
nathanbindoff on::an extraordinary wake up call for, Australia and the wildfires in the USA
nathanbindoff on::, had extraordinary impacts.
nathanbindoff on::The report that you referred to we wrote, basically pointed to the
nathanbindoff on::fact that these extreme conditions are going to occur more frequently.
nathanbindoff on::So we said twice as often, but they actually affect the
nathanbindoff on::bigger area, uh, as well.
nathanbindoff on::and then when you put those two together, they turn out to
nathanbindoff on::be four times more workload.
nathanbindoff on::It's like a 20% per decade, increase.
nathanbindoff on::So these are nontrivial changes that are emerging because of that warming.
nathanbindoff on::And it's primarily because of the warming.
nathanbindoff on::There are other things that go into fire, but there's, that's primarily because
nathanbindoff on::of the warming that goes, associated with increasing the fire danger.
nathanbindoff on::So, so yes, we did talk about that years ago and I'm off to meet the Premier today.
nathanbindoff on::And I'll probably mention it again.
Catherine:Well, my goodness.
Catherine:I would love to have an update on that meeting that professor
Catherine:Bindoff had with the Premier.
Catherine:Well today, professor Nathan Bindoff and his team are studying oxygen levels.
nathanbindoff on::Yeah.
nathanbindoff on::So, so oxygen, a lot of people, don't understand that the ocean is a very
nathanbindoff on::small reservoir of oxygen, obviously critical for fish to live off and
nathanbindoff on::much of life, within the oceans.
nathanbindoff on::But it turns out that if you make measurements of the oxygen content
nathanbindoff on::in the oceans, there are some areas where it's actually declining and
nathanbindoff on::this work that we're doing is actually about documenting those declines.
nathanbindoff on::And there are some particularly big declines in the equatorial
nathanbindoff on::zone of the Pacific and also in the Indian and Atlantic oceans.
nathanbindoff on::And there are declines at high latitudes as well.
nathanbindoff on::These declines aren't so aren't so big that the fish can't, can't ac tually
nathanbindoff on::still function but their declines are altering the distribution to some
nathanbindoff on::extent of fish in the equatorial parts.
nathanbindoff on::It's just reflecting the fact that we're on this voyage of discovery,
nathanbindoff on::where the oceans are changing and oxygen is just another one
nathanbindoff on::of those things that's changed.
nathanbindoff on::And, you know, it's, it's not talked about a lot about, it's actually a
nathanbindoff on::thing that's going to have influence, particularly in the equatorial
nathanbindoff on::zone, future equatorial zone.
nathanbindoff on::In the past records, the paleo oceanographic records we have, it's often
nathanbindoff on::talked about, the, chain variations in oxygen in the global oceans.
nathanbindoff on::So geologists have understood that there are, uh, changes in
nathanbindoff on::the oceans on long time scale.
nathanbindoff on::The difference here is that these changes that we're talking about
nathanbindoff on::are connected to human activity.
nathanbindoff on::So it's, uh, human induced oxygen decline, in fact, in the United States,
nathanbindoff on::there have been some famous, uh, kills of crabs washed up on the Oregon coast.
nathanbindoff on::And these are connected to this, changing oxygen levels, in
nathanbindoff on::the equatorial ocean actually.
nathanbindoff on::And at various times, those low oxygen zones catch up with the
nathanbindoff on::crabs, which are sitting out there on the continental shelf.
nathanbindoff on::They suddenly don't have enough oxygen.
nathanbindoff on::So they actually, asphyxiated, I suppose and then washed up, that
nathanbindoff on::is an example of the growth of this oxygen minimum layer in that zone.
nathanbindoff on::So it is influencing, uh, Marine life and their distribution.
nathanbindoff on::It's a sort of a localized catastrophe for those animals.
nathanbindoff on::Tuna populations have tended to move a little bit in response
nathanbindoff on::to these oxygen content changes.
nathanbindoff on::There are other kinds of effects on Marine wildlife.
nathanbindoff on::It's, it's always complex, but that's actually what's going on.
nathanbindoff on::And, uh, the project that I was that, that I was referring to there is
nathanbindoff on::about understanding how that oxygen is actually changing the global oceans.
nathanbindoff on::And we have relatively few observations for it.
nathanbindoff on::So it's, it's a, um, it's not as detailed or accurate picture as we
nathanbindoff on::might have for ocean temperatures
Catherine:oh, but you'll get that
nathanbindoff on::with a few more measurements.
Catherine:right?
Catherine:Yeah.
Catherine:And the reason I had mentioned fisheries is because that
Catherine:will be an economics question.
nathanbindoff on::Yeah.
nathanbindoff on::So, so this is, something we've detailed in our most recent IPCC report actually.
nathanbindoff on::There are three things going on if you like.
nathanbindoff on::The atmosphere's warming up..
nathanbindoff on::The surface ocean warms up at a faster rate than the deeper ocean.
nathanbindoff on::And because the surface ocean is warming up at a faster rate,
nathanbindoff on::um, warmer water is lighter.
nathanbindoff on::And so, uh, the surface waters are becoming more buoyant
nathanbindoff on::relative to the deeper waters.
nathanbindoff on::And now oxygen mostly gets into the deeper waters because there's a,
nathanbindoff on::what we call ventilation, literally, you know, uh, the exchange between
nathanbindoff on::the atmosphere and the deep ocean.
nathanbindoff on::Um, and that process is inhibited or reduced or slowed by the warming
nathanbindoff on::up of those surface waters, because it's actually physically harder
nathanbindoff on::to take the surface water and move it into the deeper ocean.
nathanbindoff on::And.
nathanbindoff on::Because it's physically harder there's less oxygen being
nathanbindoff on::moved into the deeper ocean.
nathanbindoff on::So when I say deeper below a hundred meters, and as a consequence of
nathanbindoff on::biological activity in that depth range, the oxygen content is the oxygen is
nathanbindoff on::consumed and it's, uh, becomes lower.
nathanbindoff on::So this decline in oxygen is really caused by surface ocean warming and,
nathanbindoff on::and a reduced rate of exchange between the atmosphere and the, and the deeper
nathanbindoff on::ocean, below 100, 200, 300 meters.
nathanbindoff on::Um, and, and that's what we've been documenting.
nathanbindoff on::And we can attribute it to the human influence because we know that, in
nathanbindoff on::following the scientific method, if you like, models that do not have
nathanbindoff on::changing cO2 do not have warming of the surface ocean, um, will still have
nathanbindoff on::the same equilibrium oxygen inside.
nathanbindoff on::But when you warm the ocean progressively from rising greenhouse gases, you
nathanbindoff on::find that the pattern of oxygen change, agrees with what's observed
nathanbindoff on::and you can formally attribute it to that rise in, , CO2 in the atmosphere.
nathanbindoff on::So the response looks like climate change, and that's why we say
nathanbindoff on::it's to do with human activity.
nathanbindoff on::, so, so Catherine, I can talk quite a lot as you might have, uh, appreciated
nathanbindoff on::but let me say, it's been a pleasure to chat, about these bigger picture
nathanbindoff on::issues with a little bit of extra time versus a normal media event.
nathanbindoff on::It allows, I think a, um, kind of a nice, nice discourse about, the
nathanbindoff on::problem that is confronting the earth..
nathanbindoff on::I'm I'm very optimistic that we can actually solve these, this,
nathanbindoff on::this particular problem, because I can see the innovation that we
nathanbindoff on::acquire, the technologies we require.
nathanbindoff on::I can see that there's a potential for the transformation transformations
nathanbindoff on::that we acquire to occur.
nathanbindoff on::And so I'm actually hopeful that we can accelerate the progress and actually,
nathanbindoff on::minimize, minimize the, problem at hand.
nathanbindoff on::And, and of course I can then just go back to doing ordinary old oceanography.
nathanbindoff on::Don't have to, uh, work on these socially relevant problems,
nathanbindoff on::become the academic that I was.
nathanbindoff on::Um, you know, it's been very interesting and fascinating time
nathanbindoff on::to be working in the oceans.
nathanbindoff on::The oceans, unlike meteorology, the oceans, Uh, 20 years behind
nathanbindoff on::the meteorological community.
nathanbindoff on::And so I've actually entered this career into this career at a, at a kind of an
nathanbindoff on::exciting moment where we've kind of become to understand much more about the oceans
nathanbindoff on::and we've developed, tools and methods to explore and see, how it's changing and
nathanbindoff on::how it's moving and how it's responding to, climate change, for instance.
nathanbindoff on::I've been a participant in these things, iPCC, I feel actually that, uh, if
nathanbindoff on::there are any budding scientists out there, if you do it right, there can be
nathanbindoff on::a very exciting and exhilarating career..
nathanbindoff on::Oh, I, I agree.
nathanbindoff on::Thank you so much, Nathan.
nathanbindoff on::You are just so good in your field and you are a very well-spoken speaker.
nathanbindoff on::You're extremely inspiring and your positive imprints are certainly global
nathanbindoff on::but your, your imprints are such a legacy because this research is for
nathanbindoff on::yesterday, today and the future, and it's going to be obviously research needed.
nathanbindoff on::I commend you for taking on the role that you are taking, not just as
nathanbindoff on::a scientist, but as a spokesperson
nathanbindoff on::and I appreciate that.
nathanbindoff on::, I think that I want to end with letters to earth,
nathanbindoff on::Nathan, I'm going to
nathanbindoff on::share my screen with you because this letter that you wrote to earth
nathanbindoff on::is very inspiring and it just shows your optimism and everything that you
nathanbindoff on::believe in for the future of our earth.
nathanbindoff on::Um, thank you Catherine.
nathanbindoff on::From time to time.
nathanbindoff on::I do think about the future.
nathanbindoff on::My dream is that the picture we so frequently paint will be different.
nathanbindoff on::Not the catastrophe that is so frequently forecast, but a world where the pressing
nathanbindoff on::problems that cutoff circumvented with human ingenuity and self-realization
nathanbindoff on::and mobilized by collaborative effort, a world where humans decide the future
nathanbindoff on::to be sustainable and transformed,
nathanbindoff on::and a transformed one that successfully reconciles climate change, our needs
nathanbindoff on::for food, energy, and all of life.
nathanbindoff on::That is what I imagine we can achieve.
Catherine:Professor Nathan Bindoff.
Catherine:thank you.
Catherine:so much for your inspiration and your commitment to your science and research.
Catherine:Thank you for sharing on your positive imprint.
nathanbindoff on::thank you Catherine..
Catherine:To learn more about professor Nathan Bindoff and his research go
Catherine:to university of Tasmania website, UTAS.edu.au and search button for Nathan
Catherine:Bindoff, N a T H a N B I N D O F F.
Catherine:You can read more letters from scientists and oceanographers
Catherine:from isthishowyoufeel.com?
Catherine:You can also write your own letter to earth by going to letterstoearth.com.
Catherine:In two weeks, join members of the Matt Palmer band as they share music and their
Catherine:climate change research from England.
Catherine:Your positive imprint.