Warm Oceans Predict Impending Disaster

Climate change has become a cause of concern worldwide as it poses a fundamental threat to the whole of the Earth, the people and every living species that inhibit this blue planet. All around the world we are experiences the effects of Global warming that are resulting in more extreme and very unpredictable weather conditions. Heat waves have become more frequent and places that were experiencing record droughts are now experiencing floods after intense rainfall.

Oceans seem to be most impacted by global warming. Due to the rising temperatures the melting of glaciers and ice sheets there has been a rise in the sea level and the ocean surface are warming up leading to increased temperature stratification. If all the ice that exists on the Earth in the form of glaciers and ice sheets melted it would raise sea level by 216 feet which would cause states like Florida and countries like Bangladesh to disappear under the waves. It has also been notices that it is not just the glaciers of the poles that are melting but recent studies by scientists have revealed that glaciers the Himalayan glaciers are melting at scary levels, and the only way to avert a huge natural disaster the scientist warned was to cool the earth's temperature.
It has also been found that the Oceans are warming up much more frequently than the previous data’s recorded. So what causes the oceans to warm up? Up to 90 percent of the global warming is caused by human carbon emissions, and the oceans absorb most of the excess heat from the greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies also have revealed that the Oceans are absorbing excess heat 40 percent faster than previous recorded estimates.
While much of our concerns regarding the climate change focus over land, its rising air temperatures, the frequently changing weather patterns, the scientist, however, rely much on the accurate estimates of ocean warming. According to climate at the University of California, Berkeley, scientist Zeke Hausfather, “The Ocean, in many ways, is the best thermometer we have for the planet,”
This accelerated warming is not just an indicator of the global warming but it is also a big concern for the ecosystem of the oceans. Not only have this raise in the ocean temperature led to mass bleaching of the coral reefs but it has also made the water more acidic which is threatening to a number of species of marine ecosystem.
When we speak about the marine ecosystem, it does not mean that only the living organism of the Oceans will be affected. Rising temperatures that are causing the coral to bleach and the loss of breeding grounds for the marine fishes and mammals will affect the benefits that the human population across the globe derives from the Ocean. This misbalance in the marine ecosystem is a threat to the food security, increasing prevalence of diseases and causing of more extreme weather conditions and loss of coastal protection that we are already experiencing.
The entire global population today needs to stand together to achieve the mitigation targets set by the Paris Agreement on climate change, in order to limit the global average temperature increase to much below 2'C above the pre-industrial levels to prevent the irreversible impacts of Ocean warming and the affect on the marine ecosystem.

By: Madhuchanda Saxena

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190805153717.htm