Climate-driven extreme heat is 'new normal' for oceans: study

[nitpicker]

https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/592421-climate-driven-extreme-heat-is-new-normal-for-oceans-study

Climate-driven extreme heat is 'new normal' for oceans: study
BY SHARON UDASIN - 02/02/22 08:39 AM EST

More than half of the planet’s ocean surface has surpassed historical heat extreme thresholds on a regular basis since 2014, a new study has found.

The study, published in PLOS Climate, concluded that such excessive ocean temperatures, fueled by climate change, have now become the “new normal.” These heat extremes are threatening crucial marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, seagrass meadows and kelp forests — by altering their structure and function, while jeopardizing their ability to provide sustenance to human communities, according to the authors.
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Researchers at the California aquarium mapped out 150 years of sea surface temperatures in order to identify a fixed historical benchmark for marine heat extremes — as well as how often and how much of the ocean exceeded this point, a news release accompanying the study said.

While 2014 was the first year in which more than half of ocean surpassed that threshold, this upward trend continued in the years that followed, and reached 57 percent of the ocean by 2019, according to the study.

As a basis of comparison, just 2 percent of the ocean surface was experiencing such warm temperatures at the end of the 19th century, the authors found.
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[marie999]

1. Jacques Cousteau, I could only find it on Watchtower online library.

‘If the Oceans Should Die’