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In 2023, global ocean temperatures hit record highs – and then remained high for more than 400 days.
Chris Merchant of the University of Reading in the U.K. says El Niño, a natural climate pattern, was just one contributing factor.
Merchant: “Another important factor was that the warming in the oceans over the long run has been accelerating.”
When Earth receives energy from the sun, some of it is reflected and escapes back to space.
But in recent decades, changes in clouds have made the Earth less reflective.
And people have been adding more carbon pollution to the atmosphere. That carbon pollution traps heat like a blanket, so even less escapes back to space and more accumulates in the oceans.
As a result, the oceans are warming increasingly quickly, which is a worrisome trend.
Merchant: “If the recent observed behavior were to carry forward for the next decade or so, the concern is that this would drive rates of temperature rise at the high end of what’s been expected from climate models. … And that might mean that some of the changes we’re thinking about in terms of climate change are coming down the track towards us a little bit faster than we might have been expecting.”
So he says it’s important that the world act quickly to transition away from fossil fuels.
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media
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