Oceans heating faster than previously thought: study

The world’s oceans have absorbed 60 per cent more heat than previously thought over the last quarter of a century, scientists said yesterday, leaving Earth more sensitive still to the effects of climate change. Oceans cover more than two thirds of the planet’s surface and play a vital role in sustaining life on Earth.

According to their most recent assessment this month, scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say the world’s oceans have absorbed 90pc of the temperature rise caused by manmade carbon emissions. But new research published in the journal Nature used a novel method of measuring ocean temperature.

It found that for each of the last 25 years, oceans had absorbed heat energy equivalent to 150 times the amount of electricity mankind produces annually. That is 60pc higher than previous studies showed. Whereas those studies relied on tallying the excess heat produced by known man-made greenhouse gas emissions, a team of US-based scientists focused on two gases found naturally in the atmosphere: Oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Both gases are soluble in water, but the rate at which water absorbs them decreases as it warms. By measuring atmospheric oxygen and CO2 for each year, scientists were able to accurately estimate how much heat oceans had absorbed.