- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in its latest State of the Climate overview has said that ocean heat has hit a record high in 2018.
- According to the report,the last four years have been the hottest on record. The year 2018 saw new records for ocean heat content in the upper 700 metres.
- The report says that about 93% of excess heat trapped around the Earth by greenhouse gases comes from burning of fossil fuels.This excess heat accumulates in the world’s oceans.
- Further,oceans are also not warming evenly across the planet.The highest rates of ocean warming are occurring in the southern ocean where warming has also reached the deepest layers.This could result in sea levels being substantially different in different places.
- The report adds that thermal expansion which means water swelling as it warms due to melting of glaciers and ice sheets is expected to raise sea levels by 12 inches(30 centimetres) above the normal sea level.
- The report warns that the temperature of top 2,000 metres of world‘s oceans will rise nearly 0.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 192 Member States and Territories.It was established by the ratification of the WMO Convention on 23 March 1950.It is headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland.
- It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was established after the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress.WMO is specialized agency of the United Nations(UN) for meteorology,operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.
