Why is it in news?
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The world’s oceans have absorbed 60% more heat than previously thought over the last quarter of a century
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Oceans cover more than two thirds of the planet’s surface and play a vital role in sustaining life on Earth.
About study
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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.
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But new research published in the journal Nature used a novel method of measuring ocean temperature.
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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.
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That is 60% higher than what previous studies showed.
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While those studies relied on tallying the excess heat produced by known man
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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.
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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