Oceans storing up staggering amounts of heat: 'the memory of all of the past climate change'

The world is getting warmer every year, thanks to climate change - but where exactly most of that heat is going may be a surprise.

As a stunning early spring blooms across the U.S., just weeks after scientists declared 2016 the hottest year on record , it's easy to forget that all the extra warmth in the air only accounts for a small fraction of the heat produced by greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, more than 90 percent of it gets stored in the ocean. And now, scientists believe they've calculated just how much the ocean has warmed in the last few decades.

A new study , out Friday in the journal Science Advances, suggests that since 1960, a staggering 337 zetajoules of energy - that's 337 followed by 21 zeros - have been added to the ocean in the form of heat. And most of it has occurred since 1980.

"The ocean is the memory of all of the past climate change," said study co-author Kevin Trenberth , a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Full story at http://trib.in/2mTnYA6

 

 

 

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