OCEAN WARMING

About:

• Earlier Findings: According to the last major assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat caused by man-made carbon emissions.
  
  
• Recent Findings:
  • However, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature, during the last 25 years, oceans had absorbed heat energy equivalent to 150 times the amount of electricity mankind produces annually.
    
    
  • This is 60% higher excess heat absorbed what previous studies showed, leading to rising ocean temperatures.
    
    
  
  
  
• Impact of ocean warming:
  • The new findings on ocean warming will make it much harder to achieving the mitigation targets set by the Paris Agreement on climate change and limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
    
    
  • A warmer ocean will hold less oxygen, and that has implications for marine ecosystems. Rising temperatures cause coral bleaching and the loss of breeding grounds for marine fishes and mammals.
    
    
  • It will also lead to threatening of food security dependent on Oceans, loss of coastal protection, rise of Sea level (due to thermal expansion of water) and extreme weather events.
    
    
  
  
  
• Way ahead: To prevent temperatures rising above 2C, carbon emissions from human activities must be reduced by 25% more than previously estimated.