Oceans are ‘soaking up more heat than estimated’

Researchers claim that the world has seriously underestimated the amount of heat oceans have been soaking up over the past 25 years. Their study suggests that the seas have absorbed 60% more than previously thought. They say it means that the earth is more sensitive to fossil fuel emissions than they had estimated, and it will be much more difficult to keep global warming within safe levels this century.

According to the last major assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s oceans have absorbed about 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases. The IPCC recently explained the benefits to the world of keeping the global rise in temperature below 1.5 degrees C, but this new study claims that achieving this goal will be very difficult.