New UN Climate Report: Earth’s Oceans Are in ‘Big Trouble’

A new climate report by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of “severe damage” to the world’s oceans and icy regions. The 42-page summary published Wednesday morning says Earth’s oceans are under such severe strain from climate change that everything from seafood harvests to the well-being of hundreds of millions of people along the coasts will soon be in jeopardy. Rising temperatures are to blame for a drop in fish population and an increase in acidity levels threaten marine ecosystems. The rising temps also contribute to ice melt, meaning oceans have risen about 16 centimeters since the beginning of the 20th century—more than double the rate of the previous 100 years. The warmer oceans will continue to fuel harsher tropical storms and floods, which poses the greatest threat to coastal populations. “The oceans are sending us so many warning signals that we need to get emissions under control,” said leader author Hans-Otto Pörtner, a marine biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. “Ecosystems are changing, food webs are changing, fish stocks are changing, and this turmoil is affecting humans.”