4. How does global warming affect the oceans?

The constant increase in global temperature significantly affects the oceans and increases the danger to human life and many other species. Marine species depend on dissolved oxygen in the water of the oceans, just as we depend on oxygen in the air. Climate change is gradually decreasing the amount of oxygen, affecting the life that develops in seas and oceans.

Global warming affects the oceans in different ways

Rise in the temperature of the oceans, which brings various consequences on their own waters and the entire planet. Remember that the oceans cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface.

Water acidification (see question # 5)

melting of glaciers

Sea level rise

Change of sea currents

Movement of species towards colder areas

Imbalance in the distribution of marine ecosystems

Affectation of trophic or food chains

Endangers the species that inhabit the oceans

The oceans “produce half of all the oxygen we breathe”, according to the UN. In addition to regulating the Earth’s climate and temperature, they provide food and are “home to hundreds of thousands of species and have long been our best allies in efforts to curb climate change. More than 93% of all the heat that human activities have added to the planet since the 1950s has been absorbed by the oceans, but at a price we are only beginning to understand (…).

Rising temperatures and increased acidification of the oceans are showing up in the melting of Arctic Sea ice and coral bleaching. Immediate action is needed, and we must jointly use all the tools at our disposal: mitigation, protection, restoration, and adaptation. If the oceans have so far been our best allies, in the immediate future there is a risk that they will begin to pick up the tab: a large part of the emissions that we have generated since the beginning of the 20th century, now stored in the oceans, may return to the atmosphere”.