Climate Change

Impact on our oceans

Climate change is a major threat to life in the oceans. The oceans are vast, covering over 70% of the world’s surface, and the effects of climate change will be large and long-lasting. Even if we were stop all greenhouse gas emissions now, sea-levels would continue to rise for centuries to come.

Bleached coral The original uploader was Elapied at French Wikipedia.CC BY-SA 2.0 FR

The oceans are a gigantic store of heat and carbon. They have absorbed more than 90% of the additional heat and 30% of the extra carbon dioxide caused by human activities. As the seas and the atmosphere warm up, there are big risks to the oceans including melting of polar ice sheets, ocean acidification, loss of habitats including coral reefs and mangroves and rises in sea levels.

On this page we will look at some of the ways Climate Change is affecting our life in our seas and what projects are underway to try to help in this critical decade. This page will be updated with new blogs over the coming months.

Written by Dr Diana Wilkins, former Climate Scientist and Volunteer for the Booth Museum of Natural History