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<h1 class="css-19v093x">Ocean Warming Is Speeding Up,
with Devastating Consequences, Study Shows</h1>
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<div class="css-7kp13n">By</div>
<div class="css-7ol5x1"><span class="css-1q5ec3n">Bob
Berwyn</span></div>
<div class="css-8rl9b7">insideclimatenews.org</div>
<div class="css-zskk6u">4 min</div>
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<p>The world's oceans are warming at a rapidly
increasing pace, new research shows, and the
heat is having devastating effects on marine
life and intensifying extreme weather.</p>
<p>Last year, the oceans were warmer than any
time since measurements began over 60 years
ago, according to a study published Monday
in the journal <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9283-7"><em>Advances
in Atmospheric Sciences</em></a>. </p>
<p>While global surface temperature
measurements go back farther in time, the
measurement of ocean heat content is
considered one of the most effective ways to
show how fast Earth is warming because more
than 90 percent of the heat trapped by
greenhouse gases goes into the oceans.</p>
<p>The new study, the first to analyze ocean
temperatures for 2019, was based on two
independent data sets and used a new way of
filling data gaps to measure ocean
temperatures going back to the 1950s.</p>
<p>When the scientists compared ocean
temperature data from the last three decades
(1987-2019) to the three decades before that
(1955-1986), they found the rate of warming
had increased 450 percent, "reflecting a
major increase in the rate of global climate
change."</p>
<p>Measured by a common energy unit used in
physics, the oceans absorbed 228 sextillion
joules of heat in the past 25 years. That's
equivalent to adding the energy of 3.6
billion Hiroshima-size atom bomb explosions
to the oceans, said the study's lead author,
<a href="https://twitter.com/Lijing_Cheng">Lijing
Cheng</a>, with the International Center
for Climate and Environmental Sciences at
the Institute of Atmospheric Physics.</p>
<p>It's "irrefutable proof of global warming"
that leaves no other explanation aside from
the effects of human-caused heat-trapping
greenhouse gas pollution, Cheng said.</p>
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<figure> <img
src="https://pocket-image-cache.com//filters:no_upscale()/https%3A%2F%2Finsideclimatenews.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fstyles%2Ficn_centered_medium%2Fpublic%2FOcean-Warming-BarChart600px.png%3Fitok%3Dm1OMt7U3"
alt=""> </figure>
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<p>The warming of the oceans has widespread
effects. It causes <a
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17092019/marine-heat-wave-climate-change-pacific-coast-fish-wildlife-california-wildfires-hurricanes-hawaii">marine
heat waves</a> that kill fish and coral
reefs, fuels hurricanes and coastal
downpours, spawns harmful toxin-producing
algal blooms and also <a
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03163-6">contributes
to heat waves on land</a>, said study
co-author Kevin Trenberth, with the National
Center for Atmospheric Research.</p>
<p>He linked the rising ocean heat content
with ocean heat waves like the 2013 to 2015
"warm blob" in the Northeastern Pacific that
resulted in a major loss of marine life,
including a <a
href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/alaska-cod-populations-plummeted-during-blob-heatwave-new-study-aims-find-out-why">crash
in cod populations</a>.</p>
<p>"The ocean heat content changes are the
primary memory of global warming," he said.
"This manifestation of global warming has
major consequences."</p>
<h3>Warmer Oceans Fuel Hurrican</h3>
<p>Trenberth, with other scientists, has <a
href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018EF000825">documented</a>
how rising ocean heat contributes to more
intense tropical storms, including
hurricanes that affect the United States.</p>
<p>"Hurricanes pump the ocean heat content
into the atmosphere in the form of moisture.
That results in extreme and record rainfall
from storms like <a
href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018EF000825">Harvey</a>
and <a
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13092018/hurricane-florence-climate-change-rainfall-storm-surge-risk-attribution-forecast">Florence</a>.
It makes for stronger and longer-lasting
storms," Trenberth said.</p>
<p>From 1960 to through 2019, the average
temperature for the upper 2000 meters of the
oceans increased by 0.12 degree Celsius,
Cheng said. However, the ocean surface,
where hurricanes draw their energy, and the
air just above it have warmed almost 1
degree Celsius from the pre-industrial era.</p>
<p>The heat buildup will affect global
transfer of heat via deep ocean currents.</p>
<p>It's nearly irreversible, at least on a
human timescale, Trenberth said.</p>
<p>"Imagine mixing a pot of hot and cold water
in the sink. It gets warm, and you can never
get the hot or the cold back," he said.</p>
<div class="RIL_IMG" id="RIL_IMG_2">
<figure> <img
src="https://pocket-image-cache.com//filters:no_upscale()/https%3A%2F%2Finsideclimatenews.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fstyles%2Fcolorbox_full%2Fpublic%2Fimage_large%2FOceanWarming60Years600px.png%3Fitok%3Dk6HwO5lJ"
alt=""> </figure>
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<p>The new study is based in part on data
since 2005 from <a
href="https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/argo/">ARGO</a>,
a network of 3,000 free-floating sensors
that record temperature and salinity in the
upper 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) of the
oceans.</p>
<p>Before 2005, scientists measured ocean
temperatures with different devices,
including expendable sinking thermometers
dropped from research ships. Those reading
weren't as widespread, so models were used
to extrapolate temperatures over wider
areas.</p>
<p>The new evaluation of ocean heat content
reinforces other recent signs of global
warming. This past decade was the warmest on
record since measurements started, and 2019
ended up the <a
href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2019-was-second-warmest-year-and-last-five-years-were-warmest-record">second-warmest
year on record</a>, though it was the
warmest in the oceans.</p>
<h3>Ocean Warming Also Affects Land</h3>
<p>In addition to increasing precipitation
from tropical storms, rising ocean heat has
consequences for sea level rise and for El
Niño, Trenberth said.</p>
<p>"In the Pacific, a consequence is El Niños
being bigger, and with stronger droughts and
floods around the world," he said. "Even
more modest things in the tropical Indian
Ocean, called the <a
href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/iod/">Indian
Ocean Dipole</a>, can lead to patterns of
weather that contribute to the <a
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13022017/australia-heatwave-climate-change-sydney-melbourne">heat
waves</a> and <a
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08012020/australia-wildfires-forest-tipping-points-climate-change-impact-wildlife-survival">bushfires</a>
in Australia." In late in 2019, these
anomalies changed radically and it became
very warm around Indonesia, creating major
flooding in Jakarta and continuing the dry
spell over Australia, he said.</p>
<p>Recent <a
href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00610/full">scientific
research</a> also shows that the marine
heat waves caused by rising ocean heat
content can contribute to increasing
outbreaks of toxin-producing algal blooms,
in association with pollution. And rising
ocean temperatures are likely contributing
to the spread of seaweed in the Caribbean
and the Gulf of Mexico, Trenberth said. The
ocean warms from the top down, which
increases stratification and reduces mixing
and aeration, breeding conditions favorable
for seaweed.</p>
<p>"It is critical to understand how fast
things are changing," said John Abraham, a
co-author of the study and a climate
researcher at the University of St. Thomas
School of Engineering in Minnesota.</p>
<p>"This problem is not going to go away, it
is getting worse. We are already seeing the
impacts of warming on society, f<span>rom
rising sea levels to hotter waters to more
intense storms and to more wild weather.</span></p>
<p>"But this problem is solvable," he said.
"The first thing we need to do is use energy
more wisely. Let's not waste energy for no
reason. Let's make our cars, homes and
workplaces more efficient. In the end, we
will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
save money."</p>
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