Global Warming and the Ocean’s Hidden Secrets

2024 became the hottest year ever recorded, with planetary heat reaching unprecedented levels and triggering natural disasters that impacted millions. While the anthropogenic causes of climate change are well established and governments worldwide are taking action—reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adopting clean energy, and restoring forests—climate instability is accelerating too fast. NASA's chief climate scientist, Gavin Schmidt, voiced concern over 2023's record temperatures, stating they not only broke previous records but pointed to unknown factors driving heating beyond what traditional climate models predicted. This suggests there are additional contributors to planetary warming yet to be accounted for.

The Ocean as Climate Regulator and Its Alarming Heating

Beyond the Sun and greenhouse gases, one of Earth’s key heating system components is the planet’s surface—mostly made up of the global ocean. Covering nearly 71% of Earth’s surface and holding over 97% of its water, the ocean has long acted as a climate stabilizer.

But today, the ocean itself needs protection—or we risk losing everything. In 2023, ocean surface temperature records were shattered. And 2024 is already surpassing them. According to a global team of scientists, since 2020, the ocean has been warming 450% faster than the previous 30-year average—an astounding acceleration. Scientists calculated that heating the ocean at this pace requires an energy equivalent to seven Hiroshima-type atomic bomb explosions every second for an entire year. Where is this colossal energy coming from?

Ocean surface water represents only about 1% of total ocean volume. This raises the hypothesis that the unaccounted heat drivers may lie within the remaining 99%. There are two main options: either the ocean is receiving more external heat, or something has changed within it, allowing it to retain more heat instead of releasing it.

Nanoplastics: The Ocean’s “Soup” and Its Effect on Thermal Conductivity

The global ocean is more polluted than ever before. Up to 30 million tons of oil spill into the sea annually. But plastic poses an even greater threat, with garbage patches on the ocean’s surface now nearly the size of the USA and Australia combined. Around 15 million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year.

Larger plastic debris degrades into smaller particles—microplastics, and eventually into nanoplastics—under the influence of sunlight, saltwater, waves, and wind. Plastic never fully decomposes and isn’t biodegradable. Nanoplastics are the final degradation stage of plastic waste, maintaining the original polymer structure but gaining new properties: they easily penetrate living tissues, infiltrate food chains, and accumulate inside organisms. High-concentration areas are dubbed "plastic soup."

Charts tracking plastic production since 1950, microplastic concentration, and ocean temperature show synchronized exponential growth. This strongly suggests that plastic pollution impacts the ocean’s heat-retention capability. Nanoplastics disrupt the thermal conductivity of the ocean, turning it from a cooling system into a “thermal blanket” for the planet—one that desperately needs cooling. These particles alter water molecule bonding, form surface films that interfere with heat exchange, and interact with other particles, affecting thermal movement.

Pollution by oil, microplastics, and chemicals also causes ocean acidification, which accelerates microplastic breakdown into nanoplastics, worsening heat retention.

Factor X: Heat from the Earth’s Interior

While nanoplastics explain altered oceanic heat retention, the source of such massive energy remains unclear. U.S. researchers found that the middle depths of the ocean are warming 15 times faster than at any point over the past 10,000 years, and this pace is increasing. These depths receive no solar radiation, making this heating even more mysterious.

Anomalous warming has been observed in the deep Weddell Sea near West Antarctica, even while upper ocean layers remain relatively unchanged. Traditionally, geothermal heat was thought to be negligible. But we’ve explored less than 3.5% of the ocean floor, and monitoring systems like Argo—with just 3,500 buoys—only measure data from about 0.3% of the ocean's surface and only halfway down.

Emerging geological hypotheses propose that Earth’s internal processes—volcanoes, faults, hydrothermal vents—could contribute far more to ocean warming than previously believed.

Link to Earth’s Core and Mantle Plumes

Over the last 30 years, Earth has seen increased geodynamic activity. Scientist Arthur Viterito noted a surge in seafloor earthquakes along mid-ocean ridges starting in 1995, correlating strongly with global temperature rise. Volcanic and seismic activity along these ridges boosts hydrothermal emissions, releasing greenhouse gases and warming the ocean and atmosphere.

One theory suggests that the Earth’s mantle began generating excess heat around 1995. This molten material rises toward the surface, triggering volcanic heating—particularly in areas like West Antarctica, which hides over 140 volcanoes beneath its ice. Studies show intense geothermal heating under the Thwaites Glacier, tightly linked to fast-melting regions. A giant mantle plume under West Antarctica spans nearly a million square kilometers, with heat fluxes three times greater than nearby terrain. A similar plume under central Greenland is also accelerating ice melt from above and below.

These changes began around 1995—also the year of troubling planetary anomalies: a sudden acceleration of the North Magnetic Pole’s movement, a shift in Earth’s axis, and a disturbance in its rotation. Scientists observed a core displacement in 1997–1998, when Earth’s inner core moved northward between West Antarctica and Western Siberia. This Moon-sized shift impacted Earth’s outer layers, boosting geothermal flow, triggering tectonic instability, unusual auroras, and massive ocean warming.

One of the greatest threats is the Siberian mantle plume—a vast 2,500–3,000 km-wide region comparable in size to Australia. Its eruption 250 million years ago (known as the Siberian Traps) caused the Permian-Triassic extinction, wiping out over 90% of species. Signs of its reactivation are already emerging. In 1998, following the core's shift toward the Taymyr Peninsula, magma began rising rapidly. The Siberian Arctic is now heating nearly four times faster than the global average.

Escaping the Trap: Innovative Solutions and Global Collaboration

This climate crisis is an undeclared war on humanity. To remove nanoplastics and stabilize climate conditions, we must deploy solutions on a planetary scale. One such solution is the Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG).

Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs)

AWGs extract clean drinking water from atmospheric moisture. They filter air and condense water vapor, excluding microplastics. Thus, AWGs provide populations with over 100,000 liters of pure water daily while helping to purify the atmosphere and oceans. The rapid evaporation caused by water intake also cools the ocean, similar to sweat cooling skin, and reduces atmospheric humidity, lowering the intensity of storms and extreme precipitation. These technologies are already available and can be deployed anywhere—even in deserts. Prototypes can cost as little as $120 USD.

A Comprehensive Plan to Save the Planet

1. Transition fully to AWGs: Stop using terrestrial and underground water sources.
   
   

2. Overhaul wastewater systems: Ensure water returns to the soil purified, allowing microbes to naturally break down nanoplastics.
   
   

3. Adopt fuel-free energy generators: AWGs need a reliable, green power source. These technologies reduce hydro-energy dependence and help restore natural rivers.
   
   

This strategy can address 70% of climate degradation, with wastewater purification accounting for the remaining 30%. It aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals: combatting climate change, ensuring clean water, and restoring ecosystems.

Time Is Running Out: A Call to Action

The ALLATRA scientific group, with 30 years of research on Earth’s inner changes (Factor X), has presented key insights at UN events such as COP16 and COP29. They emphasize the urgent need to combat nanoplastic pollution, calling it the “Number One Killer” of the biosphere.

The situation is dire—but solvable. With correct decisions and international cooperation, the crisis can be overcome. Within 8–14 months of deploying AWGs at scale, the system could stabilize. Within 5–8 years, oceans could cleanse themselves, and the climate could become milder and more predictable.

We must act now. The future of the planet depends on choices made today.