Formerly rare high temperatures now covering half of seas and devastating wildlife, study shows
Highlights
- Extreme heat in the world’s oceans passed the ‘point of no return’ in 2014 and has become the new normal.
- In some hotspots, extreme temperatures occur 90% of the time, severely affecting wildlife.
- Scientists analysed sea surface temperatures over the last 150 years, which have risen because of global heating.
- By 2019, the proportion of the global ocean suffering extreme heat was 57%, according to the study.
- The researchers called the year when the percentage passed 50% and did not fall back below it in subsequent years the “point of the no-return” by 2014 the new norm.
- The five worst affected areas off the north-east coasts of the US and Canada, off Somalia and Indonesia.