As the world’s climate changes, ocean warming is accelerating and sea levels are rising more quickly, warns a new report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report is a synthesis of the most up-to-date climate science on oceans and ice, and it lays out a stark reality: Ocean surface temperatures have been warming steadily since 1970, and for the past 25 years or so, they’ve been warming twice as fast. Sea levels are also rising increasingly quickly “due to increasing rates of ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets,” the report states. “For me, it’s the complete picture that’s kind of surprising and, frankly, concerning,” says Ko Barrett, vice-chair of the U.N. panel and the deputy assistant administrator for research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. “This is, in some ways, a report about water. Water is the lifeblood of the planet.” The report also discusses a relatively new phenomenon in the oceans: marine heat waves. “It’s sort of remarkable that prior to 2012 [or] 2013, nobody had thought about heat waves in the ocean,” says Andrew Pershing, chief scientific officer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, Maine. “And then, in 2012 we had a huge event here in the Northwest Atlantic, and the Gulf of Maine was right at the center of it. It was a real surprise.” The abnormally hot water affected animals that live off the coast of Maine, including lobster and other creatures that are crucial to the local fishing economy. What’s more, it quickly became clear that the state wasn’t alone. To view the full article visit NPR.
