This is Scott Amyx with today’s Climate Change Flash Briefing.
According to a new study in the journal Science, the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a UN panel estimated five years ago. The research indicates that ocean temperatures have broken records for several straight years.
One of the important aspect about the oceans is that it’s absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere. If the ocean wasn’t absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much faster than it is now, endangering us from a rapid extinction. But that comes at the hefty price of killing the marine ecology, rising sea levels and creating more frequent, destructive hurricanes and floods. A fifth of all corals have already died in the past three years.
If we do not take global action to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels, the researchers indicate that ocean warming alone would cause sea levels to rise by about a foot by 2100, and the ice caps would contribute more. That would cause profound damages from severe coastal flooding and storm surge.
Stay tuned next time to find out how quickly Antarctica is losing ice.
