After Earth’s oceans hit record high temperatures last year due to global warming, a new study published in the journal “Advances in Atmospheric Sciences” has come out with shocking findings: The amount of heat pumped into the ocean by climate change is equivalent to five Hiroshima explosions per second. An international team of climate buffs analyzed sea temperature data from the 1950s through to 2019 and our oceans turned out to be 0.075C hotter than the 1981-2010 average.
Crux of the Matter
To ignite up, Earth’s oceans required a staggering amount of heat equivalent to 228 sextillions (that’s 238 followed by 21 zeros) Joules’ worth of energy.
Dr Lijing Cheng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences attempted to quantify this by comparing it to the energy released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. In that ill-fated period of time, the bombings had generated energy of about 63 trillion Joules.
The readings were taken from a network of more than 3,800 buoys spread across the planet and they stated that ocean warming was equivalent to about five Hiroshima bombs of heat, every second, day and night, 365 days a year.
According to some estimates, melting ice in the polar regions could lead to rises of up to 11ft by 2100 if oceans heat up by 4C. This could render hundreds of millions homeless and create a “climate refugee” emergency.
Researchers blamed global warming for rising sea temperatures, which threaten to cause catastrophic sea-level rises over the next century and warned that the rate would continue to increase if there is no action to slow or reverse the warming.
Curiopedia
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. In the final year of World War II, the Allies prepared for a very costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. This undertaking was preceded by a conventional and firebombing campaign which devastated 67 Japanese cities. The war in Europe had concluded when Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945, and the Allies turned their full attention to the Pacific theatre. The Allies called for the unconditional surrender of the Imperial Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, the alternative being “prompt and utter destruction”. Japan ignored the ultimatum and the war continued. More Info
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