Sea levels are rising and threatening coastal cities, hurricanes are stronger: the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions and the frightening comparison to nuclear bombs.
Global warming has heated the oceans at a rate equivalent to dropping one nuclear bomb every second over the past 150 years.
This emerges from an analysis in the British newspaper based on a new study.
More than 90% of the heat caused by human made greenhouse gas emissions sinks into the oceans, and only a few percent heat the air, land and glaciers.
The enormous energy added to the oceans has raised sea levels and caused hurricanes and typhoons to be much stronger.
A large part of the heat is stored in the deep ocean, but measurements began only in recent decades. In the new study, however, estimates were published regarding ocean heat since 1871.
Scientists said that understanding past changes in ocean heat is critical for predicting the future impact of climate change.
Calculations by The Guardian found that the heat increase over the last 150 years is equivalent to dropping 1.5 nuclear bombs similar to the one dropped on Hiroshima every second.
But the heat increase accelerated over time, with rising carbon emissions, and now it is equivalent to 3 to 6 nuclear bombs per second.
“I try not to do this calculation, just because it is worrying,” said Professor Zane, lead of the new study. “We usually try to compare heating to energy use, so it is less frightening.” The total warming of the oceans over the past 150 years is a thousand times the annual energy use of the entire global population.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combined temperature measurements in the ocean’s depths since 1871, alongside computer models of ocean circulation.
Rising sea levels are one of most dangerous long term effects of climate change, threatening billions of people living in coastal cities.
The rise results partly from melting glaciers, but another main reason is the physical expansion of water as it becomes warmer.
In addition, currents cause the oceans not to warm evenly.
For example, the team found that in the Atlantic Ocean, half of the sea level rise since 1971 resulted from heat brought to the area through currents.