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| Wed, 13th Jan 2021 9:00:00 |
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Why are ocean warming records so important? |
As if 2020 could get any worse, the latest research showed that oceans hit their highest recorded temperatures, a record that keeps getting broken year after year.
Why are the oceans so important? It is quite simple: almost all of the extra heat we gain because of greenhouse gases ultimately ends up in the oceans. In fact, the oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess heat. Consequently, if you want to understand global warming, you have to measure ocean warming.
I am part of a team of 20 climate scientists who just published new research in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. We collected temperature measurements spread out across the world’s oceans – measurements that in some cases, went back to the 1950s and even earlier. These data paint an unambiguous picture of a warming planet – warming that is a direct consequence of human emission of greenhouse gases.
Ocean warming has been continuing apace for as long as we have made measurements. Scientists acknowledge year-to-year records, but the long-terms trends are what matter most. Any single year that is warm or cold cannot prove or disprove global warming. The more important issue is, what happens year after year after year? Is there a trend?
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