Navigating Rising Ocean Temperatures and Their Global Impact

Over the past few decades, there have been drastic changes in our global temperatures and climate patterns which have had significant repercussions on marine species and weather cycles worldwide. Collaboration, research, and leadership are key to finding solutions for the climate crisis and to protect the health and diversity of our world’s oceans.

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The planet’s oceans hold incredible importance and provide sustenance not only for the human population but also for billions of other species, ecosystems, and global systems. Our oceans are home to the most diverse creatures on Earth, they direct our planet’s tides and currents, provide modes of transportation, guide much of human historical and cultural heritage, and play as the world’s largest carbon sink – absorbing more than 90% of excess heat and around 25% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Our health and well-being relies in good part on oceans. However, increasing pressure and heat content fuelled by climate change are putting the Earth’s water bodies at high risk of species loss, acidification, sea level rise, and much more.

For all the above reasons, it is crucial to understand the meaning behind World Oceans Day and why the event was created in the first place as well as what we can do to reverse global warming, both individually and collectively.

The Mission and History of World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day is held annually on June 8 and is celebrated worldwide. Oceans Day was first declared in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro’s Global Forum, and was inspired by an event held by the Canadian Government called “Oceans Day At Global Forum – The Blue Planet,” which highlighted leaders and speakers that advocated for sustainability of our oceans and their global contributions. In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly eventually designated June 8 as World Oceans Day, a day to reflect and engage with various topics linked to this day, from marine laws and sustainable development to climate change and ocean conservation. The following year, the first UN World Oceans Day was held under the slogan “Our Oceans, Our Responsibility.” It saw an outstanding number of participants, donors, and world leaders investing their time and efforts into a newly born global movement.

In June 2017, the UN hosted the Ocean Conference, a multi-day global conference advocating and celebrating research, solutions, and the beauty of our oceans during this . This program was also considered for support in implementing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, Life Below Water, which aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down most of the world in 2020, the global event was held virtually for the first time, allowing access to the general public. This paved the way for all members of society to become involved in the advocacy work of the UN. Two years later, the first hybrid event took place, partially New York City and partially virtual.

Diving Deeper Into Current Trends

Current research and data by scientific organizations and climatologists are extremely alarming. The ocean stores more than three-quarters of our excess heat energy trapped in our climate system, and these levels heavily contribute to increasing heat content, meaning further contributing to sea level rise, coral bleaching events, and the melting of our planet’s glaciers and ice sheets. This heat absorbed by the ocean is able to migrate from one location to another, but cannot disappear from the cycle. 

More on the topic: Scientists Confirm Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event Across 53 Countries

Stored heat causes water to expand. And it is exactly this expansion that is responsible for about half of global sea level rise. 2023 was the ocean’s warmest year ever recorded, and halfway through 2024, the trend has yet to slow down.

One study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that the world’s oceans absorb heat at a rate 60% higher than the previous UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study predicted. This alarming finding shows that our current trajectory would require humans to reduce our CO2 emissions by an extra 25% on top of regular suggestions, which is near impossible at the present time.

Another important influence to current climate trends is El Niño, a weather pattern associated with the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Under normal conditions, this pattern leads to heatwaves in known locations by scientists, but over the past decade – including the most recent El Niño event in 2023 and early 2024 – new ocean locations have experienced record breaking heatwaves and intense storms influenced by this phenomenon. These events are becoming unpredictable, dangerous, and prove that global warming is affecting all global processes, not just the warming of our oceans. This dramatic increase in temperature trends not only impacts short-term events and influences, but can predict what will happen in the long-term if trends continue to rise.

These studies and insights should be taken as warning signs to individuals, industries, and governments worldwide; unless we act now, the impacts of ocean warming will become irreversible.

More on the topic: Toward a New Global Approach to Safeguard Planet Earth: An Interview With Johan Rockström

Blue Planet Crisis: The Impacts of Warming Seas

Climate change is driven by human activity through the burning of fossil fuels and polluting industries such as agriculture and manufacturing. Natural processes also influence these numbers, adding onto the already dramatic effects of human activity. As a result, the greenhouse effect increases and global warming trends rise – altering the chemistry and heat content of the ocean.

SDG14 covers the main focuses of the ocean emergency, including coastal eutrophication, ocean acidification, ocean warming and sea level rise, plastic pollution, and overfishing. These five major impacts on our oceans, fuelled by climate change, have resulted in broken temperature records nearly every single day over the past year, with massive die-offs due to intense storms, bleaching events, and dead zones (due to oxygen depletion). 

The largest consequence of human-driven ocean warming is the considerable amount of damage done to global sea life. Mass bleaching events, which are due to ocean waters becoming too warm, turn critical coral nurseries to white skeletons. Coral reefs are keystone communities to marine life, with multiple functions as natural barriers to shorelines, home to thousands of fish and sea creatures, and are able to produce oxygen and new leads in medicinal and culinary purposes.

More on the topic: What Are Coral Reefs and Why Are They So Important?

Ocean acidification, a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, also stress marine ecosystems. Increased deoxygenation leads to dead zones which cannot support any life underwater. Dead zones can greatly affect non-mobile marine organisms that live deeper under water. When multiple processes combine, the effects multiply and can irreversibly damage ecosystem structure and function.

Marine life underwater are not the only species at risk; many creatures above water, such as penguin colonies or polar bears living in Arctic conditions on glaciers, suffer the loss of their ecosystem due to melting sea ice and rising sea levels caused by the albedo ice effect. Without coral communities and ice sheets, millions of native and keystone species are pushed toward extinction.

What Is in Store for the Future?

The big question for scientists and climate advocates around the world is: How can we stop this? The current state of our environment is the result of multiple factors and effects from past and present human activities, combined with natural processes. These drivers, which include climate change, overexploitation, pollution, and changes in land and ocean usage, influence how our planet is today.

Other categories of our ecosystems are improving, such as endangered species protection programs, water quality, or conservation efforts for estuaries and watersheds. Shining the light on recovery and mitigation efforts is crucial to providing hope and reducing pressure on other factors.

The urgent need to achieve the agreements on global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels is still attainable, but will require much force before 2030.

The most important steps that we can take to help reverse or lessen changes to our planet include limiting greenhouse gas emissions, protecting and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems, increasing scientific research, and improving adaptation. 

Managing protected areas and providing assistance and mitigation aid to key marine habitats around the world can help improve resistance and environmental degradation against climate change. In terms of improving research, governments and organizations can provide funding and measurements for ocean warming impacts and solutions.

Now is time to take action – individually, and together. Protecting and conserving our ocean and its services is key to a healthy and happy future for every living being on Earth. But in order to succeed, we must step up efforts now, before it is too late.