The oceans have absorbed much of the global temperature rise, storing it in their uppermost 2,300 feet. The evidence is incontestable. The temperature of these upper layers of water rose by 0.302º fahrenheit since 1969. The consequences of warming oceans are also undeniable. If we don’t stop this, then many of the world’s greatest cities may gradually drown.
How Warming Oceans Matter to People on Land
Every handful of ice that melts adds to the volume of water in the sea. The warming oceans already cover 70% of earth’s surface and their average depth is 2.7 miles. So any change will have a big impact on us. Even if we live on land, we remain water people, as NASA says.
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are shrinking. Scientists conducted a detailed study between 2002 and 2005, when the Earth was slightly cooler than it is now. During this period, Greenland shed approximately 45 cubic miles of ice, while the Antarctic shed 36 cubes. The global mean sea level rose a third of an inch in response.
Glaciers are retreating in high places on earth, and this moisture too is reaching the warming oceans. There is clear scientific evidence of this in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa. What does all this mean to the future of our civilization?
A January 2017 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a total sea level rise of between 1 and 8 feet during the 21st Century.
However, even if we stabilized greenhouse gases today, their effect would last for several centuries more.
If we do nothing instead, and the trend continues then sea levels could eventually rise at least twenty more feet. The evidence of climate change is everywhere around us. In 2007, James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies wrote, “We may rue reticence, if it serves to lock in future disasters.”
Related
Climate Change Evidence: Global Temperature Rise
Climate Change Part 35: Record Arctic Ice Shrink in 2012
Preview Image: Greenland Ice Sheet Meets the Ocean
