The world’s oceans are being brought to a simmer and the heat is being increased. According to new research, last year was the sixth consecutive year of the record for the hottest ocean temperatures.
Scientists say that global warming is the primary driver of ocean heating. Although the temperature of the atmosphere is trending upwards, it is less likely that individual years will break records than the oceans’ warming.
Last year’s heat record was for the top 2,000m of all oceans in the world. This was despite a La Nia event, which is a periodic climatic phenomenon that cools the Pacific. The 2021 record surpasses all modern records dating back to 1955. 2020 was the second hottest year in oceans, while 2019 was third.
The ocean heat content has been steadily increasing globally and is a primary indicator for human-induced climate change, according to Kevin Trenberth (climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado) and co-author. Published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.
The paper states that warmer ocean waters are causing severe flooding by boosting storms, hurricanes and extreme rain. Heated ocean water expands Eat awayAt the immense Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, which are Collectively, we lose around 1tn tonnes of ice per yearThese two processes are fueling sea level rising.
Oceans absorb about a third the carbon dioxide emitted from human activity, which causes them to acidify. This causes coral reefs to become less healthy, which is a major source of food and marine life. For more than 500m peopleThese can cause damage to individual fish species.
The oceans are feeling the heat as the world heats up from deforestation, burning fossil fuels and other activities. The oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the heat produced over the past 50 year, temporarily saving humanity and other land-based species from extreme temperatures.
The oceans absorb enormous amounts heat. Last year, the oceans reached a height of 2,000 meters. The area where the most warming occursIt absorbed 14 more Zettajoules (an electrical energy unit equal to one sextillion Joles) in 2019 than it did in 2020. This extra energy is 145x more than the world’s entire electricity generation. It is, however, only half of a zitjoule.
The Atlantic and Southern oceans are the strongest for long-term ocean warming, according to new research. However, the north Pacific has seen a dramatic increase of heat since 1990, and the Mediterranean Sea set a clear high temperature record in last year.
John Abraham, another co-author of the study, said that the heating trend is so strong it is possible to determine the fingerprint of human involvement in just four years. Abraham, a specialist in thermal sciences at University of St Thomas, stated that ocean heat content is one of most reliable indicators of climate changes.
Until we reach net-zero emissions, that heating will continue. We will also continue breaking ocean heat content records as we did this past year, stated Michael Mann, a climate researcher at Penn State University, and another of the 23 authors who contributed to the paper. It is important to have a better understanding and awareness about the oceans in order to take action against climate change.
