One particularly worrying anomaly that has been detected this year is the recorded surface temperature of the world’s oceans. So far in 2023, this has been above anything seen in the 40 years that satellites have been measuring it.

Records have been “headed off the charts” and, as a result, the Earth has marched into “uncharted territory”, according to scientists.

The ocean is much less reflective than the land and soaks up more of the direct energy from sunlight. But as greenhouse gases trap more of the energy that’s reflected back – allowing less to escape to space – the ocean tries to balance itself with the heat in the atmosphere above.

The ocean has therefore acted like the planet’s air conditioner, relentlessly absorbing extra heat. But as the ocean heats up, it expands, pushing up sea levels around the globe. Just over one-third of the rise in global sea levels is down to thermal expansion.

Prof David Schoeman of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, who helped coordinate the latest UN climate assessment’s work on the ocean, says much of the heat that has pushed surface temperatures to new highs in recent months is likely coming from below.

Every year, about 134 million atomic bombs of heat is being trapped by the ocean. It has kept global temperatures down and kept the land livable but we have to realise that energy hasn’t gone.

Remember the world is 70% covered by ocean. Simple physics means the ocean has this huge ability to absorb heat and then hold on to it. A calorie is defined as the amount of heat required at a pressure of 1 standard atmosphere to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1° Celsius and is equal to approximately 4.2 joules. One joule represents (approximately) the amount of electricity required to run a 1 W device for 1 s.

Scaling this up then, to warm a cubic metre of water (or ocean) by 1 C, needs about 4,200,000 joules. By comparison, to heat one cubic metre of air by 1C takes about 2,000 joules.

By absorbing all this heat, the ocean lulls people into a false sense of security that climate change is progressing slowly. But it is inevitable that this energy will come back to bite us. ⛈️

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