National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“ The United States has long been a leader in developing customary and conventional law of the sea. Our objectives have consistently been to provide a legal order that will, among other things, facilitate peaceful, international uses of the oceans and provide for equitable and effective management and conservation of marine resources. The United States also recognizes that all nations have an interest in these issues. ”

“ Northern Europe appears to be particularly vulnerable to such a change because its relatively warm, rainy weather depends on the northerly flow of warm water from the Gulf Stream, which in turn is linked to thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic. ”

“ In designation of routes and any areas to be avoided, and consistent with existing authorities, consideration should be given to the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area, including the effects of shipping and vessel pollution on the marine environment, fishery resources, the seabed and subsoil of the Outer Continental Shelf, marine mammal migratory pathways and other biologically important areas, and subsistence whaling, hunting, and fishing. ”

“ Goods and services are transported across them constantly. They support countless jobs in an array of industries, including fishing, tourism, and energy. The economies of entire regions depend on the oceans. The United States has been a leader in exploring and protecting this critical resource. We have gained new insights into the ocean ecosystems through research and monitoring. ”

“ The data are required to understand both the world's climate system and the potential impacts on water resources of climate change and sea level rise. All countries must participate and, where necessary, be assisted to take part in the global monitoring, the study of the effects and the development of appropriate response strategies. ”

“ As the investigation of the Pacific's meteorology is so important to America, the same system of observations applied to the Atlantic reaches to the roots of European meteorology. It is well known that the atmospheric conditions which shape European weather and climate are propagated over the French and British coasts from the Atlantic, so that every intelligent storm-warner and weather-forecaster in Europe casts a wistful eye to the western waters to catch some premonition of what is to befall his coasts. ”

“ Both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans send streams of warm water against the American coast. But the Gulf Stream has actually very little direct effect upon our climate; it only touches the coast about the Gulf of Mexico, where the temperature is naturally so high that its warming power is not felt. It then leaves our coast, to give its warmth to the shores of Europe and to the European part of the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific current corresponding to the Gulf Stream is feebler than the Atlantic current, and sends its tide of waters against the northwest shore of America. ”

“ Vessels navigating the Archipelago [Pg 41] between China and New Zealand, should make observations every three hours, in order that the undulations arising from the configuration of the terrestrial and oceanic surfaces may be more distinctly marked and more advantageously compared with the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the northern portion of the African continent.
The Pacific Ocean.—As this ocean presents so vast an aqueous surface, generally speaking observations at intervals of six hours will be amply sufficient to ascertain its leading barometric phænomena. ”

“ Land as a Barrier to Ocean Currents.—We have seen already the great importance of elevated land to serve as condensers and ice-accumulators; but there is another and hardly less important effect that may be produced by an extension of land in high latitudes, which is, to act as a barrier to the flow of ocean currents. In the region with which we are more immediately interested it is easy to see how a comparatively slight alteration of land and sea, such as has undoubtedly occurred, would produce an enormous effect on climate. ”

“ If we here recognise the mainspring of the Gulf Stream mechanism, or rather of the whole system of oceanic circulation-for the movements observed in the Atlantic have their exact counterpart in the Pacific—we shall have no difficulty in accounting for all the motions which that mechanism exhibits. We need no longer look upon the Gulf Stream as the rebound of the equatorial current from the shores of North America. Knowing that there is an underflow towards the equator, we see that there must be a surface-flow towards the Poles. ”

“ The U.S. Coast Guard, in coordination with all relevant agencies and the State of Alaska, shall update the Area Contingency plans, the Subarea Response Plans, and the Geographic Response Strategies relevant to the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. ”

“ Long-term concerns include climate-change issues such as the depletion of the ozone layer and more frequent droughts, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially the Great Barrier Reef. ”

“ Thus, it is an error to say that the climate of Great Britain and western Europe is affected by the Gulf Stream, or that the climate of California and British Columbia is controlled by the Japan Current; in both these cases it is the moist ocean wind that brings cloud and rain, and the amount of this latter is not influenced in the slightest degree by the Gulf Stream or the Kuro Siwo. Another important consideration in climatology is the relation of the wind to the mountain ranges. Thus, on the windward side of a range, there is ascending air which causes damp weather with cloud or rain ”

“ The chief effect of a varied relief is a varied climate. This changes with altitude in much the same way as with latitude. Heat and absolute humidity diminish, generally speaking, as height increases, while rainfall becomes greater up to a certain level. The effect of ascending and descending currents of air is to diminish the range of temperature on mountain slopes and produce rather an oceanic type of climate. The larger and more uniform a climatic district, the more conspicuously do even slight elevations form climatic islands, like the Harz Mountains in the North German lowlands. ”

“ Thus at sea the climatic conditions of the land are reversed, for the coldest side of the ocean is next the warmest side of the continent, and vice versa. The winds from extra-tropical seas temper the climates of the shores upon which they blow, not so much by the sensible heat they convey as by the latent heat which is liberated from the vapour they bring. This being condensed, as upon the British Islands and Western Europe, sets free heat enough not only to soften the climate, but to rarefy the air to such an extent as to be observed in the mean barometric pressure. ”

“ It would make possible a consolidated program for achieving a more comprehensive understanding of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena, which so greatly affect our lives and activities. It would facilitate the cooperation between public and private interests that can best serve the interests of all. ”

“ The ocean is also the great source of moisture, and this, too, it distributes over the land through the agency of the wind. Where warm ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream and Kuro Siwa, penetrate into temperate or sub-polar latitudes, or where cool ones, like the Peruvian and Benguela Currents wash the coasts of tropical regions, they enhance the power of the ocean and wind to mitigate the extremes of temperature on land. ”

“ It requires ten times the quantity of heat to raise a pound of water one degree [201] that it does a pound of iron. The oceans therefore store up vast quantities of the heat of the sun and, unlike the continents, distribute this heat northward and southward without regard to latitude. Much of the heat of the tropics is thus transported far northward and southward from the equator. The extensive eddy-like circulation of the south half of the North Atlantic Ocean sends currents northward along the coast of the United States which set eastward at latitude 40°. ”

“ Only the high seas outside of national jurisdiction are truly 'commons'; but fish species, pollution, and other effects of economic development do not respect these legal boundaries. Sound management of the ocean commons will require management of land-based activities as well. Five zones bear on this management: inland areas, which affect the oceans mostly via rivers ”

“ The polar origin of the cold deep water found in low latitudes has long been considered probable, and has given rise to a theory of a general oceanic circulation in a vertical and horizontal direction, produced by differences of temperature and density. Recent theoretical investigations, however, seem to indicate that these causes alone are incapable of producing currents, and, to-day, the theory that the winds are mainly responsible for all current movements very largely predominates. ”

“ In furtherance of this principle, and as articulated in the March 10, 2016, U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership, the United States has resolved to confront the challenges of a changing Arctic by working to conserve Arctic biodiversity; support and engage Alaska Native tribes; incorporate traditional knowledge into decisionmaking; and build a sustainable Arctic economy that relies on the highest safety and environmental standards, including adherence to national climate goals. ”

“ Coastal communities have an essential role to play in mitigating climate change and strengthening resilience by protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems, such as wetlands, seagrasses, coral and oyster reefs, and mangrove and kelp forests, to protect vulnerable coastlines, sequester carbon, and support biodiversity and fisheries. ”

“ It is urged that the warmth derived from so shallow a current as the Gulf Stream must be, by the time it has reached our shores, could not provide an amount of heat sufficient to affect our climate to any appreciable extent. The mere neighbourhood of this water at a temperature slightly higher than that due to the latitude could not, it is urged, affect the temperature of the inland counties at all. ”

“ It will greatly enrich the meteorology of the ocean and aid navigation, by supplying data for deducing those true mean physical values which teach the mariner at sea where he may find "a fair wind and a favorable current," how he may best utilize the forces of nature and elude its terrors. It will afford material for the renovation of the climatology and sanitary meteorology of regions not now fully investigated. But, above all, it will facilitate the elucidation of the laws of storms and those associate phenomena which conspire to produce the many-colored phases of "the weather." ”

“ Over the next 20 years, in addition to increasingly disruptive extreme weather events, the projected effects of climate change will play out in the combination of multiple weather disturbances with broader, systemic changes, including the effects of sea level rise. ”

“ Since the 1980s, under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, American scientists have been working with hundreds of scientists around the world to identify, understand, and raise public awareness about the threat to our planet's ozone layer. ”

“ With the advent of the great scientific expeditions, which were supplied with modern and refined instruments, our knowledge of the thermal conditions of the sea has progressed immensely, and we are now able to construct charts of all the oceans, showing the distribution of the isotherms with considerable accuracy.
The annual average surface temperature has been found higher in the Indian Ocean than in either the Atlantic or Pacific; the North Atlantic is slightly warmer than the North Pacific, but the South Pacific is warmer than the South Atlantic ”

“ Thus it would appear that the Pacific is the great centre of earth-movement, while the Atlantic trench is the more potent regulator of temperature, and the ocean most likely to be severely affected in this respect by small changes of its neighbouring land. Last of all, an observer, such as I have supposed, would see that the oceans are the producers of moisture and the conveyors of heat to the northern regions of the world, and that in this respect and in the immense condensation and delivery of ice at its north end, the Atlantic is by far the more active, though the smaller of the two. ”

“ Oceans Management 15. Looking to the next century. the Commission is convinced that sustainable development , if not survival itself depends on significant advances in the management of the oceans. Considerable changes will be required in our institutions and policies and more resources will have to be committed to oceans management. ”

“ This great flood of thermal waters spreads out in the Northern Atlantic, imparting to Europe a climate corresponding to countries twenty degrees south of it on this side of the ocean. There is, of course, an under-current from the Arctics to the equator, exactly compensating this enormous northward flow of the surface-waters. The same process and effect are repeated in the Pacific Ocean; and the great Japan Stream robs the southern hemisphere, for the benefit of our Pacific States, only in a degree less than does the Gulf Stream for the benefit of Europe. ”

“ The constant and equable trade-winds have a very important function in initiating those far-reaching ocean-currents which are of the greatest importance in equalising temperature. The well known Gulf Stream is to us the most important of these currents, because it plays the chief part in giving us the mild climate we enjoy in common with the whole of Western Europe, a mildness which is felt to a considerable distance within the Arctic Circle ”