#Oceans; #HottestOceans; #greenhouseGases
CMEDIA: July ocean temperatures were the hottest they’ve ever been, reported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Monday.
“The last 10 years have been the warmest since the 1880s. And all this increase in temps are not only felt at the surface of the ocean, but they can [also] be detected at thousands of metres depth,” Carlos Del Castillo, chief of NASA’s Ocean Ecology Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center said during a press conference.
“And there are consequences — as the ocean heats, the water expands, and when you combine that with the melting of ice over land, that contributes to the increase in sea level rise — which are accelerating.”
Increasied consequences can be seen in coastal flooding, coastal erosion, and marine species of economic importance migrating further north to colder waters.
And Del Castillo warned: “What happens in the oceans doesn’t stay in the oceans.”
It’s a sobering reminder that our planet is more than 70 percent water, that these waters help drive climate around every part of the world.
Effects of increased greenhouse gasses on our oceans, including natural variations in our atmosphere, are being studied by scientists.
