The warming of the oceans due to climate change is now unstoppable after record temperatures last year, bringing an additional sea-level rise and raising the risks of severe storms, US government climate scientists said on Thursday.
The State of the Climate in 2014 report, based on research from 413 scientists from 58 nations, found record warming on the surface and upper levels of the oceans, especially in the North Pacific, in line with earlier findings that last year was the hottest on record.
The global sea level also reached a record high, with the expansion of those warming waters keeping pace with the trend in sea-level growth over the past two decades, the report said.
Scientists said the consequences of those warmer ocean temperatures would be felt for centuries to come — even if there were immediate efforts to cut the carbon emissions fueling changes in the oceans.
“I think of it more like a fly wheel or a freight train. It takes a big push to get it going, but it is moving now and will continue to move long after we continue to pushing it,” Greg Johnson, an oceanographer at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, told a conference call with reporters.
“Even if we were to freeze greenhouse gases at current levels, the seas would actually continue to warm for centuries and millennia, and as they continue to warm and expand the sea levels will continue to rise,” he added.
On the west coast of the US, freakishly warm temperatures in the Pacific are already producing warmer winters, as well as worsening drought conditions by melting the snowpack, he said.
The extra heat in the oceans is also contributing to more intense storms, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information director Tom Karl said.
The report underlined last year as a banner year for the climate, setting record or near record levels for temperature extremes, and loss of glaciers and sea ice, and reinforcing decades-old patterns to changes to the climate system.
Four independent data sets confirmed last year was the hottest on record, with much of that heat driven by the warming of the oceans.
Globally, 90 percent of the excess heat caused by the rise in greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed by the oceans.
More than 20 nations in Europe set new heat records, with Africa, Asia and Australia also experiencing near-record heat. The east coast of North America was the only region to experience cooler than average conditions.
Alaska experienced temperatures warmer than average and spring ice breakup came to the Arctic 20 to 30 days earlier than the 20th century average.
“The prognosis is to expect a continuation of what we have seen,” Karl said.
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