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LONDON – Ocean temperatures are rising faster than previously thought, as they absorb most of the growing emissions of climate change around the world, scientists said Thursday.
The heat of the ocean – recorded by thousands of floating robots – has broken records several times over the past decade. 2018 is expected to be the hottest year to date, thus replacing the record of 2017, according to an analysis of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Scientists warn that it causes sea level rise as the oceans warm and expand and contribute to more intense hurricanes and other extreme weather events.
The warming, measured since 1960, is faster than predicted by scientists from a 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that examined global warming, according to the study released this week. in the journal Science.
"This is mainly due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to human activities," said Lijing Cheng, lead author of the study's Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The rising rate of global warming "is simply a sign of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Cheng said.
Important climate scientists said in October that it was about 12 years in the world to spend from a thriving environment to cleaner renewable energy systems, or to risk cope with the worst impacts of climate change.
These include worsening water and food shortages, stronger storms, heat waves and other extreme weather conditions, as well as rising seas.
According to Mr. Cheng, an ocean observing system called Argo has been used for 13 years to monitor ocean temperature changes. More reliable data, which is the basis of the new ocean heat recordings, have been collected.
The system uses nearly 4,000 drifting oceanic robots that dive to a depth of 2,000 meters every few days, recording the temperature and other indicators as they rise to the surface.
With the data collected, scientists have documented an increase in precipitation intensity and more powerful storms such as Hurricanes Harvey in 2017 and Florence in 2018.
Cheng explained that oceans are the source of energy for storms and can power more powerful ones as temperature – a measure of energy – increases.
Storms over the 2050-2100 period should be more powerful than those of the 1950-2000, said the scientist.
Mr Cheng said that the oceans, which have absorbed up to now more than 90% of additional solar energy trapped by rising emissions, will experience a continuous rise in temperature.
"Because the ocean has a great heat capacity, it is characterized as a" delayed response "to global warming, which means that the warming of the ocean could be more serious in the future." said the researcher.
"For example, even if we achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement (limiting climate change), the ocean will continue to warm and sea levels will continue to rise. Their impacts will continue.
If the goals of the Paris agreement to keep warming to "well below" 2 degrees C, or preferably 1.5, can be achieved, however, the damage expected by 2100 could to be divided by two, Cheng said.
For now, however, climate change emissions continue to rise, and "I do not think we are doing enough to cope with rising temperatures," Cheng said.
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