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Oceans heating faster: study
Why is it in news?
- The world’s oceans have absorbed 60% more heat than previously thought over the last quarter of a century
- Oceans cover more than two thirds of the planet’s surface and play a vital role in sustaining life on Earth.
About study
- According to their most recent assessment this month, scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that the world’s oceans have absorbed 90% of the temperature rise caused by man-made carbon emissions.
- But new research published in the journal Nature used a novel method of measuring ocean temperature.
- It found that for each of the last 25 years, oceans had absorbed heat energy equivalent to 150 times the amount of electricity mankind produces annually.
- That is 60% higher than what previous studies showed.
- While those studies relied on tallying the excess heat produced by known man
- made greenhouse gas emissions, a team of U.S.-based scientists focussed on two gases found naturally in the atmosphere — Oxygen and carbon dioxide.Both gases are soluble in water, but the rate at which water absorbs them decreases as it warms.
- The IPCC warns that drastic measures need taking in order to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius by the end of the century but the world produced a record amount of carbon emissions in 2017.
Source
The Hindu