According to a recent study, world’s oceans are absorbing 60% more heat than the researchers previously estimated, meaning that the effects of climate change, global warming, are impacting the Earth’s waters more than thought causing a boost in ocean warming. As the scientists said, the oceans are covering two-thirds of our planet’s surface, having a critical role in sustaining life on Earth.
Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to their most recent research in ocean warming, stated that world’s oceans absorbed more than 90% of the heat triggered by carbon dioxide emissions. Even more, the new study revealed that oceans absorbed heat energy by 150 times higher than the amount of electricity humanity produces in a year, which means by 60% more heat than previously estimated.
By calculating the levels of atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide for each year of the last 25 years, scientists could more precisely estimate how much heat the world’s oceans absorbed, globally.
Ocean Warming Is Higher Than Previously Estimated As Oceans Are Absorbing 60% More Heat
“Imagine if the oceans were only 10-meter deep. Our data shows that it would have warmed by 6.5 degrees Celsius every decade since 1991,” explained Laure Resplandy, an assistant professor of geosciences at Princeton University, and the study’s leading author. That means that the results the new research came to are equivalent to the scenarios of the impact of an increase of 4 degrees Celsius in the global average temperature that IPCC has previously imagined.
“The result significantly increases the confidence we can place in estimates of ocean warming and therefore helps reduce uncertainty,” also stated Ralph Keeling from the University of California-San Diego, and one of the study’s co-authors.
This new research shows, once again, the importance of taking the appropriate measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fight climate change, global warming, which is causing the ocean warming to increase, triggering the extinction of large ecosystems, including corals.
Vadim is a passionate writer on various topics but especially on stuff related to health, technology, and science. Therefore, for Great Lakes Ledger, Vadim will cover health and Sci&Tech news.