The ocean heats up the equivalent of each person opening 100 microwaves

The heat in the world's oceans hit a new record in 2019, showing the planet's "undeniable and accelerating" warming.

The new analysis shows that the last 5 years are the warmest five recorded in the ocean. Increasing temperatures in the oceans are equivalent to each person on the planet running 100 microwaves both day and night.

Hotter oceans lead to more severe storms and disruption of the water cycle, which means more floods, droughts and fires, as well as rising sea levels. Higher temperatures are also detrimental to marine life, with the number of ocean heat waves rising sharply.

"The oceans are really the place to tell us how quickly the Earth heats up," said Professor John Abraham at St Thomas University, Minnesota, USA, a member of the research team.

The hotter oceans also expand and thaw, causing sea levels to rise.(Photo: Nasa).

"Through the oceans, we see the rate of global warming, uninterrupted and increasing Earth. This is terrible news , " he told the Guardian.

"We see that 2019 is not only the warmest year recorded but it also represents the largest one-year increase in a decade, a serious reminder that man-made warming on our planet. we still haven't decreased, " said Michael Mann, professor at Pennsylvania State University, a member of the research team.

The analysis, published in Advances In Atherheric Science, uses ocean data from all available sources. Most of the data is from 3,800 Argo floats scattered freely across the oceans, also taken from deep-water thermal registers similar to torpedoes launched from ships.

Oceans in the world are the clearest measure of climate emergency because they absorb more than 90% of the heat captured by greenhouse gases emitted from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and other activities. other human actions.

• Ocean warming since when?
• Global warming is changing the flow of the oceans