Global Warming Being Captured in Seas

Many are unaware that global warming is hiding in seas. You may think that global warming just has to do with the air, as long as people continue to think like that no one will realize the size of this issue.

Of the people that have been tested by the gap minder survey 90% got this question wrong. The question asked what percent of global warming is captured in the oceans, the correct answer was more than 90 percent. When global warming is mentioned we look at our local weather, however as the weather changed caused by global warming has spread so unevenly it most likely hadn’t affected your local weather or you first hand. Plenty of the heat is trapped inside the atmosphere each day but isn’t very easy to detect. This occurs as less than 7% of the excess heat stays in the air. Of the earth’s total surface, 71% is covered by oceans and that’s where 93% of the heat sneaks away. In the past 50 years in the upper 75 meter of the oceans has increased half a degree Celsius which may not sound like much but it makes the world more likely to floods and other natural disasters. Globally, ocean temperatures are expected to increase by 1-4 degrees by 2100. As well as the energy to heat up that amount of water would be devastating if it has stayed in the air.

When we are actually able to eliminate/ reduce greenhouse gases we emit we would have all the extra heat and global warming in the seas and it would create a very long delay. When the same amount of heat enters and leaves the atmosphere every day, we will still be stuck with all the extra heat hiding in the oceans. It would probably take more than a century for the extra energy to escape back into the atmosphere and go to space, where it should have been in the first place. Until this happens the air temperature cannot start sinking again.

Given the ocean’s importance to the planet, its vital we manage the oceans in a sustainable way. Some changes to the oceans can be fish stocks. To manage fishing sustainably requires adapting to whatever issues climate change brings. Areas in the tropics are predicted to see declines about 40% in potential seafood by 2050. This calls for us to adapt new ways of fishing.

Global warming being captured in seas are affecting our natural resources and are impacting the marine life. Solutions must arise sooner or later because reducing the greenhouse gases and global warming in the air will not be enough.