Study: Earth traps twice as much heat now as it did in 2005, contributing to global warming; humans partly to blame

"The amount of heat Earth traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land," according to recently published research from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Tik Root reports for The Washington Post. "Gregory Johnson, an oceanographer for NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and co-author of the study . . . said the energy increase is equivalent to four detonations per second of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, or every person on Earth using 20 electric tea kettles at once."

NASA scientist Norman Loeb, the lead author of the study, told Root that "the magnitude of the increase is unprecedented. . . . Earth is warming faster than expected."

"Using satellite data, researchers measured what is known as Earth’s energy imbalance — the difference between how much energy the planet absorbs from the sun, and how much it’s able to shed, or radiate back out into space," Root reports. When Earth absorbs more heat than it loses, it's a sign of global warming. The news comes as drought and record-breaking heat consume much of the Western U.S.

"The study points to decreases in cloud cover and sea ice, which reflect solar energy back into space, and an increase in greenhouse gases emitted by humans, such as methane and carbon dioxide, as well as water vapor, which trap more heat in the Earth, as factors in the imbalance. But it is difficult to discern human-induced changes from cyclical variations in the climate, the researches said," Root reports. Natural climate fluctuations such as the El Niño current cycle may have played a significant role in the findings, but Johnson told Root humans aren't without blame. Though it's unclear to what extent, "We’re responsible for some of it," he said.