NEW YORK, 12 Jan. - (ANA) - The world’s oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought, according to a report by scientists. 

 

This finding will have dire implications for climate change because almost all the excess heat absorbed by the planet ends up stored in their waters.

 

A new analysis, in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. The researchers also concluded that ocean temperatures have broken records for several straight years.

 

“2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at the independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. “As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year.”

 

As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer. They have slowed the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases humans pump into the atmosphere.

 

The surging water temperatures are already killing off marine ecosystems, raising sea levels and making hurricanes more destructive.

 

As the oceans continue to heat up, those effects will become more catastrophic, scientists say.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/12 January 2019 - - -