Over the past 10 years, ocean temperatures hit record highs.

In 2019, water temperatures in the oceans at depths of up to two kilometers were 0.075 degrees higher than the 1981-2010 average, Deutsche Welle reported.

Over the last ten years, ocean temperatures have reached record levels since the 1950s, while the figures for each of the last five years have been the highest since the beginning of records. This is stated in a study prepared by an international team of experts of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to these data, in 2019 the water temperature in the oceans at depths of up to two kilometers was 0.075 degrees higher than the average from 1981 to 2010. In this case, the warming of the oceans is accelerated by climate change. The warming of the oceans, in turn, is leading to floods, droughts, forest fires, as well as severe sea storms.

The researchers used the relatively new methods of the Chinese Institute.

“The oceans are really what tells you how fast the Earth is warming,” said Prof John Abraham at the University of St Thomas, in Minnesota, US, and one of the team behind the new analysis. “Using the oceans, we see a continued, uninterrupted and accelerating warming rate of planet Earth. This is dire news.”

He said global warming is a real process, but humanity can influence it and slow its pace. Abraham, however, indicated that the oceans would take a long time to respond to change.

“We found that 2019 was not only the warmest year on record, it displayed the largest single-year increase of the entire decade, a sobering reminder that human-caused heating of our planet continues unabated,” said Prof Michael Mann, at Penn State University, US, and another team member.