More than 90% of climate change is happening underwater. (AP/NOAA)
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A 122°F world, needless to say, would be unlivable. More than 93% of climate change is out of sight and out of mind for most of us land-dwelling humans, but as the oceans continue to onboard all that heat, they’re becoming unlivable themselves.
Ocean temperatures are the highest since record-keeping began, and hundreds of marine species are suffering because of it. Recent back-to-back coral bleaching events—triggered by too-hot sea temperatures—have killed off significant portions (paywall) of the Great Barrier Reef, and a recent UN report warned that the world’s most significant coral reefs could die out completely by the end of the century, if not sooner.
“Warming is projected to exceed the ability of reefs to survive within one to three decades for the majority of the World Heritage sites containing corals reefs,” the report said.
Scientists worry that the warming ocean also risks releasing billions of tons of frozen methane from the thawing seabed. Unlocking that methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, could trigger significant warming here on land.
Links
- Explaining Ocean Warming: Causes, scale, effects and consequences (pdf)
- Climate at a Glance
- Global Climate Report - Annual 2016
- Large Sections of Australia’s Great Reef Are Now Dead, Scientists Find
- Assessment: World Heritage coral reefs likely to disappear by 2100 unless CO2 emissions drastically reduce
- Soaring ocean temperature is 'greatest hidden challenge of our generation'
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