PARIS: The world’s oceans absorbed 90 percent of excess heat in 2023, making the planet livable, said an annual report published on Thursday.
The report said that the enormous amount of heat taken by the oceans is enough to boil billions of Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Water cover 70 percent of earth and has kept the planet’s surface livable by absorbing the excess heat produced by the carbon pollution from human activity.
According to the estimates from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Chinese Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), in 2023 the oceans soaked up around 9 to 15 zettajoules (a unit to measure energy) which is more than in 2022.
One zettajoule of energy is roughly equals to ten times the electricity generated across the world in a year.
The report said the entire earth consumes around half a zettajoule of energy to fuel economies every year.
It added another way to think about this is 15 zettajoules of energy is enough to boil away 2.3 billion Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences said in 2023, ocean surface temperature and the energy stored in the upper 2000 meters of the sea, reached record highs.
It said the amount of energy saved in the oceans is a key indicator of global warming because it is less impacted by natural climate.
2023, a year full of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires
Some of the huge amounts of energy stored in the ocean made 2023, a year full of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.
It is because if the oceans get warmer, the more heat and moisture enters the atmosphere, which ultimately leads to erratic weather.
Warmer sea surface temperatures occurred by global warming, caused mainly by the fossil fuels’ burning.
After every few years, a naturally occurring weather phenomenon, El Nino, warms the sea surface in the southern Pacific. The current El Nino is likely to reach at its peak in 2024.
Experts and scientists are concerned about the long-term capacity of the oceans to absorb 90 percent of the excess heat from human activity.
