A new maximum sea surface temperature for the Mediterranean Sea was set last Thursday, RFI reports, as waters hit a daily median of 28.9°C, another disturbing indicator of the worsening conditions of climate change.
These preliminary findings come from satellite data produced by the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, which recorded the maximum temperature for the day (31.96°C) on the Egyptian coast at El-Arish. The previous record, a median of 28.71°C set last July, broke a record that had stood for 20 years. But it is the long periods of consistently high temperatures, rather than records, that concern researchers.
“Since 2022, surface temperatures [in the Mediterranean] have been abnormally high for long periods, even in a climate-change environment,” explained Justino Martinez, researcher at the Institut de Ciencies del Mar in Barcelona and the Catalan Institute of Research for the Governance of the Sea.
[See more: Warming temperatures could soon cost the global economy US$38 trillion a year]
The Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, warming 20 percent faster than the global average. Rising temperatures contribute to sea level rise, increased salinization, reduced precipitation and heightened disaster risk for the more than 510 million people who call the region home.
Rising temperatures in the sea also threaten marine life. Earlier heatwaves in the Mediterranean decimated around 50 marine animal species, including molluscs and corals. Globally, hotter oceans are expected to impact the migration of certain species and the spread of invasive species, as well, potentially threatening fish stocks and undermining food security for coastal communities.
Oceans have long served to mitigate much of the excess heat produced by human activity. Scientists estimate that the world’s oceans have absorbed some 90 percent of excess heat produced since the dawn of the industrial age. But as water temperatures climb, oceans are also less able to absorb carbon dioxide, reinforcing the cycle of worsening global warming.
