A new climate report claimed that oceans are rising faster, and ice is melting more.
The report is by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is warning “severe damage” to both the oceans and icy regions. It consists of a 42-page summary that explains how Earth’s oceans are under such “severe strain” from climate change.
According to CNN, more than 100 scientists from 36 countries worked on the report which is titled the “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.”
The report said that this is causing everything from seafood harvest to hundreds of millions of people along the coasts to be in jeopardy soon.
The rising temperatures throughout the world are the reason why the fish population is dropping and why there is an increase in acidity levels that are threatening marine ecosystems.
This is also causing the ice to melt, which means oceans have risen about 16 centimeters since the beginning of the 20th century. According to the report, that is more than double the rate of the previous 100 years.
A study said the warmer oceans will continue to develop harsher tropical storms and floods, which is a threat to the 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,” he continued.