{"text":[[{"start":10.9,"text":"Heatwaves and melting ice were bringing “profound changes” to the world’s ocean as a result of climate change, more than 120 scientists concluded in a flagship report, including salty seas getting saltier and the ocean more acidic."}],[{"start":24.25,"text":"The ocean has absorbed some 90 per cent of the world’s excess heat trapped as a result of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. In 2025 alone, it gained an estimated 23 zettajoules in heat — or about 40 times the energy the entire world consumed last year."}],[{"start":43.65,"text":"The dramatic effects included an accelerated sea level rise observed by the study since 2012, the EU marine service Mercator Ocean International said in the report drawing together the work of international scientists."}],[{"start":57.55,"text":"“Warming, rising seas and ecosystem degradation are interconnected signs of significant and long-term change,” said Pierre Bahurel, director-general of Mercator. “The ocean is changing rapidly.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":68.55,"text":"The research pointed to record heatwaves that in some cases lasted more than 30 days, notably in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in 2024, with temperatures exceeding average conditions by more than 4.6C. "}],[{"start":84.85,"text":"Andrius Kubilius, the EU’s commissioner for defence and space, said the study showed the “scale and urgency of the challenges facing our ocean, as climate change continues to transform marine ecosystems and ocean circulation”."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":99.1,"text":"The Mercator research estimated the mean sea level rose by about 3.8mm each year between 1999 and 2025, but this figure was 4.2mm for the years between 2012 and 2025. "}],[{"start":113.6,"text":"It said the impact of storm surges and extreme wave events was expected to intensify because of the accelerating sea level rise. "}],[{"start":122.39999999999999,"text":"Across small island states, which are among the most exposed to climate change, about two-thirds of their combined economic areas had been exposed to sea level rise since 1999, the scientists found. "}],[{"start":134.85,"text":"The ocean also became about 17 per cent more acidic between 1985 and 2025, the scientists said, as it absorbed carbon dioxide. "}],[{"start":145.7,"text":"Salty areas were getting saltier in recent years, said Ana Claudia Parracho, one of the authors, in findings covering the period since 2011 that involved the comparison of previously unattainable satellite data with longer-term trends."}],[{"start":160.54999999999998,"text":"Seawater and sea ice surface temperatures had increased by about 4.2C in the Arctic over the past four decades, with sea ice extent loss averaging about 4 per cent per decade. By comparison, the air temperature rise in the region has been estimated at about 2.8C over the same period."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":179.14999999999998,"text":"In all Arctic areas which experience seasonal sea ice, there had been a decline since the early 1980s. The heaviest losses were in Canada’s Hudson Bay, where the decline was 16 per cent per decade, the Barents Sea, north of Norway, with an equivalent 12 per cent loss, and the East Greenland shelf at 8 per cent. "}],[{"start":200.89999999999998,"text":"In the Antarctic, a loss of sea ice extent was already affecting penguin populations and reshaping the region’s biodiversity, the scientists said. "}],[{"start":209.79999999999998,"text":"The report came during an El Niño event across the Pacific Ocean, which is already breaking records by some measures and is expected to reach a peak by the end of the year. The natural warming cycle typically leads to even higher sea temperatures on top of those already caused by climate change. "}],[{"start":227.35,"text":"Karina von Schuckmann, director of the Copernicus Ocean State Report, said record sea temperatures had been reported in 2023 and 2024 during the previous El Niño cycle, with 2026 expected to surpass those records."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":252,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790777665_8648.mp3"}