Ocean warming is “greatest hidden challenge of our generation,” according to IUCN
Global warming is changing Earth’s oceans and those impacts will last for decades even if we rein in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, according to new research. A report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on September 5 finds that the effects of global warming on oceans are not a concern for the future — fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and even humans are already being impacted by rising temperatures in oceanic waters. “This is no longer a single story of ocean warming challenges to coral reefs, but a rapidly growing list of alarming changes across species at ecosystem scales, and across geographies spanning the entire world,” the IUCN said in a statement about the findings of the report, which was compiled by 80 scientists in 12 countries around the world. “It is pervasive change, driven by ocean warming and other stressors already operating in ways we are only beginning to understand… Ocean warming may well turn out to be the greatest hidden challenge of our generation.”
