• The world’s oceans are heating up 40% faster than scientists previously thought, according to a new study.
• That means sea levels could rise a foot by 2100.
• Higher sea levels contribute to costly coastal flooding and cause hurricanes to be more severe.
• Last year was most likely the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans, up from 2017 and 2016, according to one of the study’s authors.

Earth’s oceans absorb a whopping 93% of the extra heat that greenhouse gases trap in the atmosphere.

A new study has revealed that this absorption process is happening far faster than scientists had realized.

According to an analysis published in the journal Science, the world’s oceans are heating up 40% faster (on average) than the last estimatefrom the world’s scientific authority on climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In one sense, the oceans’ heat-trapping abilities help us in the short term.

“If the ocean wasn’t absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much faster than it is right now,” Malin Pinsky, an associate professor of ecology and natural resources at Rutgers University, told the New York Times. “In fact, the ocean is saving us from massive warming right now.”