New IPCC report warns of dire threat to oceans
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report- ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate’. The report underlines the dire changes taking place in oceans, glaciers and ice-deposits on land and sea.
- It was prepared following an IPCC Panel decision in 2016 to prepare three Special Reports and follows the Special Reports on Global Warming of 1.5°C, and on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL).
Key findings:
- Over the 21st century, the ocean is projected to transition to unprecedented conditions with increased temperatures, further ocean acidification, marine heatwaves and more frequent extreme El Niño and La Niña events.
- The global ocean has warmed unabated since 1970 and has taken up more than 90% of the excess heat in the climate system.
- Since 1993, the rate of ocean warming has more than doubled.
- Marine heatwaves have very likely doubled in frequency since 1982 and are increasing in intensity.
- Floods will become more frequent and severe in the mountainous and downstream areas of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins, because of an increase in extreme precipitation events.
Sources: the Hindu.
