Global Warming Is Causing Stronger Waves
In a recent study, the researchers came up with a worrying conclusion. Namely, global warming is causing stronger waves, as it’s continuing to disrupt the oceans around the world. While the results of the new study might mean no big deal for some, in reality, they suggest that climate change is getting worse, threatening coastal settlements.
“The upper-ocean warming, a consequence of anthropogenic global warming, is changing the global wave climate, making waves stronger. That identifies wave power as a potentially valuable climate change indicator,” the researchers wrote in the study’s report, issued recently in the scientific journal Nature.
According to the scientists, waves’ strength has surged by 0.41 percent per year since 1948, and there are some connections between that phenomenon and sea surface temperatures, which are on the rise due to global warming, in the tropical Atlantic region which is the most energetic one, as the researchers said.
Global Warming Is Causing Stronger Waves
“This study shows that the global wave power can be a potentially valuable indicator of global warming, similar to carbon dioxide concentration, the global sea level rise, or the global surface atmospheric temperature,” said Inigo Losada, one of the study’s authors.
While the 0.41 percent surge in waves’ strength is just the average, in some areas of the world, “2 percent increases per year in many regions of the Southern Ocean, for an average 0.58 percent per year across the basin” has been recorded, according to the study’s report. “Our results indicate that risk analysis neglecting the changes in wave power and having sea level rise as the only driver may underestimate the consequences of climate change and result in insufficient or maladaptation,” also said Fernando Mendez, another author of the study.
The researchers also added that understanding the impact of global warming on oceans, which is now causing stronger waves, is of great significance for science, as well as for the people to know where to build infrastructures, such as ports, harbors, and buildings, to avoid the adverse effects of increasingly more powerful waves.
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.
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