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Title: Climate Crisis Has Tripled Length of Deadly Ocean Heatwaves, Study
Finds

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/15/0148...

The climate crisis has tripled the length of ocean heatwaves, a study has
found, supercharging deadly storms and destroying critical ecosystems such as
kelp forests and coral reefs. From a report: Half of the marine heatwaves
since 2000 would not have happened without global heating, which is caused by
burning fossil fuels. The heatwaves have not only become more frequent but
also more intense: 1C warmer on average, but much hotter in some places, the
scientists said. The research is the first comprehensive assessment of the
impact of the climate crisis on heatwaves in the world's oceans, and it
reveals profound changes. Hotter oceans also soak up fewer of the carbon
dioxide emissions that are driving temperatures up. "Here in the
Mediterranean, we have some marine heatwaves that are 5C hotter," said Dr
Marta Marcos at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Mallorca,
Spain, who led the study. "It's horrible when you go swimming. It looks like
soup." As well as devastating underwater ecosystems such as sea grass
meadows, Marcos said: "Warmer oceans provide more energy to the strong storms
that affect people at the coast and inland."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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