More destructive storms
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Perhaps you've noticed a preponderance of destructive hurricanes of late? Yes, chalk that up, at least partially, to warming oceans, too. As the Environmental Defense Fund explains, "As…storms travel across warm oceans, they pull in more water vapor and heat. That means stronger wind, heavier rainfall and more flooding when the storms hit land." All that warming is also making storms get intense faster than ever, and they're also traveling slower, which means that they have extra time to do extra damage. Going forward, these are the 13 weather terms you'll want to know.
Threats to marine life
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No surprise here: an ocean that's warmer than it should be has negative impacts on all the creatures that have acclimated to living in it. It's the top 250 feet, from the surface of the ocean on down, that have warmed the most and the fastest, reports National Geographic, and animals that live in that zone have been impacted first. That means whales, the plankton some whales feed on, and the vast majority of fish, have been suffering the consequences; they're sensitive to even small shifts in temperature, but significant ocean heatwaves, with spikes of several degrees above average, are becoming more common and getting more extreme. All this is what makes whales one of the 14 wild animal species you never knew were endangered.
Tough times for coral
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One of the hardest hit marine lifeforms, and one of the most stunning sites to see beneath the waves, is coral. These are incredibly important living members of an ocean ecosystem because they provide habitat for other creatures, which in turn becomes dinner for critters further up the food chain. Coral is even more sensitive to shifts in temperature than some other ocean dwellers. As a result, in the last three or four years, one-fifth of all the world's coral has bleached—as National Geographic explains it, spitting out the "symbiotic algae that live inside them" and that gives them energy—and died.
Our Oceans Keep Getting Warmer—Here's What It Means for the Planet, Source:https://www.rd.com/culture/what-warmer-oceans-means-for-the-planet/
