In 2023, the world’s oceans took up an enormous amount of excess heat, enough to “boil away billions of Olympic-sized swimming pools,” according to an annual report published Thursday. Oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and have kept the Earth’s surface livable by absorbing 90 percent of the excess heat produced by the carbon pollution from human activity since the dawn of the industrial age. In 2023, the oceans soaked up around 9 to 15 zettajoules more than in 2022, according to the respective estimates from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Chinese Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP).

Global warming pushes ocean temperatures off the charts. (2024, January 13). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A9.