UNESCO Report Highlights Ocean Crisis, Urges Enhanced Research

June 7, 2024

The UNESCO State of Ocean Report 2024 points out important gaps in our knowledge of how the oceans work. It focuses on the fact that we don’t have enough data to successfully deal with different ocean crises and implement new technologies for removing carbon dioxide. Vidar Helgesen, who is the executive secretary of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, stresses how important it is to speed up research and data gathering.

Ocean Warming and Energy Imbalance

The top 2,000 meters of the ocean warmed at a rate of 0.32 ± 0.03 watts per square meter from 1960 to 2023, and this rate is expected to keep going up. This faster warming, which has been seen most recently in the last 20 years, comes with a lot of long-term risks, such as changes to the environment that can’t be undone. About 90% of Earth’s energy imbalance is absorbed by the ocean. This causes the ocean’s heat content (OHC) to rise, which makes it harder for layers of water to mix and lowers the amount of oxygen in deeper seas (deoxygenation).

Increased Ocean Acidification

The study also shows that the oceans are becoming more acidic across many basins. Since the late 1980s, the pH has been dropping by 0.017 to 0.027 units every ten years. This acidification is made worse by both natural and human actions, such as the runoff of nutrients from farms and factories. The current data, mostly from the open seas, is thought to be too small for a full analysis, especially in coastal areas where there is more variation.

Rising Sea Levels

The mean sea level around the world has grown by about 3.4 +/- 0.3 mm per year from 1993 to 2023. For evaluating and predicting future trends at both the global and regional levels, it is essential to have better monitoring tools.

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