The world’s oceans are warmer than ever — and they are getting warmer faster, according to a new report.
In a development that provides yet further evidence of global warming, the study, published in the Chinese journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, found that ocean temperatures in the last decade have been the warmest on record.
In addition, the research illustrates the influence of human-induced warming on the Earth’s waters and indicates that sea-level rise, ocean acidification and extreme weather could get worse as the oceans go on absorbing excess heat.
As global warming speeds up, so does the rise in sea levels. While 2004 to 2010 saw oceans rise by about 15 millimetres in total, this value doubled for 2010 to 2016. Tropical regions in the western Pacific are especially affected, threatening many of the coastal areas and low-lying islands with submersion by the end of the century.
‘Really dire news’
“The pace of warming has increased about 500% since the late 1980s,” John Abraham, one of the researchers behind the study, told NBC News.
Abraham, who is a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, was not surprised by the results of the study. “The findings, to be honest, were not unexpected. Warming is continuing, it has accelerated, and it is unabated. Unless we do something significant and quickly, it’s really dire news.”
Also Read: Oceans Warming Faster Than Expected, Set Heat Record in 2018: Scientists
The rate of ocean warming is increasing at an alarming rate, according to the report. It showed that, from the period 1987 to 2019 compared with the period 1955 to 1986, the rate of warming accelerated almost 4 1/2 times in the latter timespan.
Abraham and his colleagues found that in 2019 alone, average ocean temperatures were 0.075 degrees Celsius (0.135 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1981-2019 median. While that may not seem a lot, it represents an enormous amount of heat spread across the world’s oceans.
The study’s lead author, Lijing Cheng, an associate professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing, equated the increase in ocean heat over the past 25 years to that of “3.6 billion Hiroshima atom bomb explosions.”
The increase in ocean temperature can have wide-ranging repercussions, for both sea and land life. Even the recent bushfires in Australia have been cited as an example of the warmth in the oceans playing a devastating role inland, experts have said.