Zzedzz, here’s some more science about ocean warming from the same journal article i cited above. It’s well worth a read, it’s the latest research by a top team,
”The ocean heating is irrefutable, and a key measure of the Earth’s energy imbalance: the excess GHGs in the air trap more heat inside the climate system and drives global warming. More than 90% of the heat accumulates in the ocean because of its large heat capacity, and the remaining heating manifests as atmospheric warming, a drying and warming landmass, and melting of land and sea ice.
“There are no reasonable alternatives aside from anthropogenic emissions of heat-trapping gases (IPCC, 2001, 2007, 2013, 2019; USGCRP, 2017).
“Increased ocean temperatures lead to rising sea levels (thermal expansion of the ocean and added mass from melting land ice) (Oppenheimer et al., 2019).
”According to the altimetry satellite record, the past 10 years are also the highest in global mean sea level since 1900 (IPCC, 2019).
”Increases in ocean temperature reduce dissolved oxygen in the ocean and significantly affect sea life, particularly corals and other temperature- and chemistry-sensitive organisms (Abram et al., 2019; Bindoff et al., 2019). The increasing heat increases evaporation, and the extra moisture in the warmer atmosphere nourishes heavy rains and promotes flooding (Trenberth et al., 2003; Held and Soden, 2006; Trenberth, 2011; Collins et al., 2019), leading to a more extreme hydrological cycle and more extreme weather (in particular hurricanes and typhoons) (Trenberth et al., 2018).
”It is one of the key reasons why the Earth has experienced increasing catastrophic fires in the Amazon, California, and Australia in 2019 (extending into 2020 for Australia).
”It is important to note that ocean warming will continue even if the global mean surface air temperature can be stabilized at or below 2°C (the key policy target of the Paris Agreement) in the 21st century (Cheng et al., 2019a; IPCC, 2019), due to the long-term commitment of ocean changes driven by GHGs.
”Here, the term “commitment” means that the ocean (and some other components in the Earth system, such as the large ice sheets) are slow to respond and equilibrate, and will continue to change even after radiative forcing stabilizes (Abram et al., 2019).
”However, the rates and magnitudes of ocean warming and the associated risks will be smaller with lower GHG emissions (Cheng et al., 2019a; IPCC, 2019). Hence, the rate of increase can be reduced by appropriate human actions that lead to rapid reductions in GHG emissions (Cheng et al., 2019a; IPCC, 2019), thereby reducing the risks to humans and other life on Earth.”
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