The year 2018 passed the previous record set just the year before, in 2017; the top five years of ocean heat have come in the last five years. Last year continues a startling trend of global ocean warming that is a direct result of humans’ warming of the planet, the authors say.
Warmer oceans lead to a variety of problems, such as sea level rise, more intense storms with heavier rainfall, coral bleaching and melting polar ice.
The increasing amount of heat-trapping gases, such as carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by humans, creates an energy imbalance that leads to global heating.
“Increases in ocean heat are incontrovertible proof that the Earth is warming,” the study said.
Ocean heat shows proof of global warming
Kevin Trenberth, a scientist with the Climate Analysis Section at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of the study, said the ocean heat trend is a better climate change indicator than air temperature.
“The global mean surface temperature record is greatly affected by weather, El Nino and so forth,” Trenberth said. “The ocean heat warming signal is much more visible and not as noisy.”
Impacts from the warmer oceans
The impacts from warming oceans were clearly visible during the past year, according the study’s authors.
The added heat resulted in a global mean sea level rise of 29.5 millimeters above the 1981-2010 average, which was the largest ever observed. Rising sea levels makes coastal communities more susceptible to storm surges, coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion of freshwater supplies.
Source : Nbcnewyork