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CLIMATE WATCH - It’s back; it’s bigger; it’s hotter. The Blob has returned to the Pacific Ocean in style, extending all the way from Japan to the US West Coast, haunting the very essence of marine life and igniting additional global warming on land. Nobody thought it could return with so much vigor and ferocity and expansiveness so soon. But here it is in 2025, once again setting all-time heat records.
The Blob’s current record-breaking heatwave extends 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the US West Coast. In due course, this could negatively impact (kill) marine life (e.g., 2025 Western Australia, 30,000 dead fish wash ashore) and goose up the severity of global warming on land; alternatively, it could, hopefully, modulate. It’s all about climate system interconnectivity. But regardless, it keeps coming back.
This version of The Blob established a sea surface temperature record in August 2025 of 20°C, a record for the ERSST data base going back to 1854. This data is provided by NOAA/NCEI aka, National Centers for Environmental Information, which is the world’s leading authority for weather and climate data. (The 2025 Trump administration proposed budget calls for major cuts in NOAA/NCEI funding, meaning society will likely be blindfolded).
There has been a recurring presence this century of The Blob in the Pacific Ocean, for example, in 2013 a very severe heatwave occurred followed by another Blob heatstroke in 2019. This recurring behavior is cause for concern by scientists as massive die-offs of marine life liter coastlines. But in past circumstances the heatwaves eventually modulate as strong fall and winter storms track across the water and upwelling occurs, bringing cooler waters from depth to surface. However, the entire ocean complex may be entering a new state, a new threatening regime change never experienced nor expected.
Massive Ocean Regime Shift
The Blob’s record-setting heat curiously jives with a recent study claiming a fundamental shift in ocean behavior, referring to the dreaded tipping point at hand, ScienceDaily d/d July 26th, 2025: The Oceans are Overheating – and Scientists Say a Tipping Point May be Here. In fact, this new study is accompanied by a statement showing deep concern by Zhenzhong Zeng, PhD, Earth Systems Scientist, China Southern University of Science and Technology, co-author of the study clearly stating: “I am very scared.”
Scientists are not supposed to make statements like that lest they are labeled as scaremongers. Climate scientists almost always take the conservative approach because the field of study demands rigorous supporting factual data, thus begging the question of what should be expected of a scientist confronted by actual scary data?
“I think almost all of the Earth system model projections are wrong… Record marine heatwaves may signal a permanent shift in the oceans.” (Zeng) The Zeng study, starting in 2023, identified heatwaves classified as massively extensive on a scale never registered before covering 96% of the world’s oceans consistently for 500 days. Zeng has good reason to be “scared.”
And Zeng is in good company. A US EPA (subject to Trump funding cuts) study showed ocean heat content to 2,300 feet depth increasing 5-fold since 2020. A 5-fold increase in only 5 years; that’s incredible and incomprehensibly scary and a remarkably chilling development.
The current version of The Blob is one more extension to Zeng’s study and another good reason to be concerned. Moreover, marine heatwaves this decade have lasted four times (4x) longer than the historical record. Hot oceans accelerate climate change. As water temperatures rise, oceans lose ability to absorb excessive heat and land temperatures rise accordingly.
Indeed, the bottom line to all above is “it’s scary,” as global warming’s impact has turned ubiquitous across land, ocean, and sea as a menacing threat to everything we hold dear.
The Zeng study identified peak ocean temperatures exceeding normal by 3C and hitting levels that surpass what most marine organisms can survive. Moreover, five hundred (500) days of consistent heatwaves with peak temperatures at 3C happens to be well above the level that contributing scientists of the IPCC say exceeds “ecosystem tipping points of no return,” accelerating a hell-on-wheels climate system. (World on Track for Catastrophic 3 Degrees Celsius Warming, UN Warns, Politico, October 24, 2024).
The ’hell-on-wheels’ climate: (1) Based upon climate disasters on nightly mainstream news the past 2-3 years, in real time, the world climate system has already gone bonkers (2) Leading climate scientists warn of six (6) impending major ecosystems on edge at sensitive tipping points ‘of no return’ (3) Polar scientists, claiming fossil fuel CO2 emissions must stop now, warn of a massive Antarctic catastrophic scenario within current lifetimes (4) Fossil fuel CO2 emissions, up annualized by a whopping 200% since 2000, set new records (5) Global heat sets new records (6) Ocean heat sets new records (7) Top scientists stymied by a sudden, radical 10-fold jump-shift in global mean temperature within only one year, never happened before (8) Key world players decrease or withdraw entirely from climate mitigation (95% of Countries Miss Deadline to Submit Climate Pledges, CarbonBrief, Feb. 2025)
Ergo, expectations of a bumpy road ahead are grossly understated.
This article was originally published on Sept. 28, 2025 © Counterpunch
(Robert Hunziker, M.A. in Economic History from DePaul University and a member of Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society, is a freelance writer and environmental journalist. With over 200 published articles featured in more than 50 international journals, magazines, and online platforms, his work focuses on climate change, sustainability, and global ecological issues. Hunziker is a regular contributor to CityWatchLA, where he brings a global perspective to urgent environmental challenges facing Los Angeles and beyond.)
