NEW YORK (AP) Due to climate change, the worlds oceans are getting warmer, rising higher, losing oxygen and becoming more acidic at an ever-faster pace and melting even more ice and snow, a grim international science assessment concludes.
But thats nothing compared to what Wednesdays special United Nations-affiliated oceans and ice report says is coming if global warming doesnt slow down: three feet of sea rise by the end of the century, many fewer fish, weakening ocean currents, even less snow and ice, stronger and wetter hurricanes and nastier El Nino weather systems.
The oceans and the icy parts of the world are in big trouble and that means were all in big trouble too, said one of the reports lead authors, Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. The changes are accelerating.