Burning Seas – The Poetry of Science

Beneath tide-skins
stretched skinny,
a sluggish warmth hums –
its salt-fingers
urgent in opposition to
what as soon as held agency.
The ocean,
a narrative unwinding,
carrying iron-whispers
from historical cores,
its weight drawn skyward
by fires unseen.
Edge after edge,
stone-cloaks dissolve,
their silence stitched
into depths the place
fragile lanterns collect
and fade.
Within the water’s grasp,
the air stays –
a query left
unanswered.

This poem is impressed by latest analysis, which has discovered that sea floor temperatures and deeper water temperatures reached a brand new file excessive in 2024.

Rising ocean temperatures are a big indicator of the planet’s ongoing warming, pushed by growing greenhouse gasoline concentrations within the environment. In 2024, world sea floor temperatures and the warmth saved within the higher layers of the ocean reached unprecedented ranges, constructing on a regarding pattern noticed lately. The warming of the oceans has far-reaching implications – from intensifying excessive climate occasions to disrupting marine ecosystems and threatening communities that rely upon them.

This research examines the record-breaking ocean temperatures of 2024, revealing that the warmth content material within the higher 2,000 metres of the oceans elevated considerably in comparison with 2023. Key areas, together with the Indian Ocean, North Atlantic, and Southern Ocean, skilled their highest warmth ranges ever recorded. The analysis discovered that world sea floor temperatures additionally remained at file highs for a lot of the 12 months, averaging 0.61°C above the 1981–2010 baseline. These findings are important as they underscore the unrelenting pattern of world heating, highlighting the urgency of addressing the basis causes of local weather change to mitigate its widespread and interconnected impacts.