The planet’s oceans are warmer than ever, as in 2021 the accumulated heat in the upper layer of their waters broke a new record for the sixth consecutive year, according to the latest scientific data.
The new study by 23 scientists from 14 institutes in the United States, China and other countries, including the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. last year the upper 2,000 meters of all the Earth’s oceans absorbed 14 more Zettajoules than in 2020, a quantity that corresponds to 145 times the world electricity production in 2020. By comparison, all the energy that people in the world use in one year , is only about half Jettajoule (Zettajoule in joules is the number 1 followed by 21 zeros or 240,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 calories).
“The amount of heat in the oceans is rising steadily globally and this is a key indicator of anthropogenic climate change,” said Kenny Trenbert, a researcher at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
“Apart from absorbing heat, today the oceans absorb 20% to 30% of human carbon dioxide emissions, which leads to acidification of the oceans. “Ocean warming, however, reduces their efficiency in absorbing carbon, which leads to an increase in carbon dioxide in the air,” said lead researcher Lijing Cheng, an associate professor at the Chinese Institute of Atmospheric Physics. “As the oceans warm, the water expands and the sea level rises. “Warmer oceans are overloading weather systems, creating stronger storms and hurricanes and increasing rainfall and flood risk,” he added.
“The oceans absorb most of the heat from human carbon emissions. “As long as we achieve zero emissions, this heat will continue and so we will continue to break ocean heat records, as we did last year,” said Michael Mann, a professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University.
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