A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pegged 2014 as the hottest year the Earth's oceans have ever experienced.
According to the Guardian, 413 scientists from 58 countries collaborated on the annual State of the Climate report, examining oceans' surface and upper level temperatures.
"This is the 25th report in this important annual series, as well as the 20th report that has been produced for publication in BAMS," Keith Seitter, AMS executive director, said in a news release. "Over the years we have seen clearly the value of careful and consistent monitoring of our climate which allows us to document real changes occurring in the Earth's climate system."
The researchers said warming oceans could lead to more severe storms and extreme weather events, as well as quicker ice melt toward the Earth's poles and a resulting rise in the global sea level.
"This report represents data from around the globe, from hundreds of scientists and gives us a picture of what happened in 2014. The variety of indicators shows us how our climate is changing, not just in temperature but from the depths of the oceans to the outer atmosphere," Thomas R. Karl, L.H.D, director at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, said in the release.
Greg Johnson, an oceanographer at the NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, told reporters on a conference call climate change is now irreversible, the Guardian reported.
"I think of it more like a fly wheel or a freight train. It takes a big push to get it going but it is moving now and will contiue to move long after we continue to pushing it," he said. "Even if we were to freeze greenhouse gases at current levels, the sea would actually continue to warm for centuries and millennia, and as they continue to warm and expand the sea levels will continue to rise."
