One of the Oceans on Earth is Taking in All of Excess Climate Change Heat

And scientists finally have an answer as to why.

Transcript

00:00The world is getting warmer, and as it does and greenhouse gases increase, our oceans sequester a lot of it.

00:09And with increased greenhouse gases means increased heat, which the oceans also absorb.

00:13A whopping 90% of that heat according to Earth System Science data,

00:17but now a new study published in Nature Communications has revealed that most of that heat is going into just one ocean.

00:23The Southern Ocean is the newest named ocean by world experts,

00:26but it also accounts for almost all of the heat sequestration that's occurring on our planet,

00:31which experts say means that it's also controlling the rate of climate change around the world nearly single-handedly.

00:36And that's a pretty big statement, considering it's the second smallest ocean around the globe.

00:41Now the question is why is the Southern Ocean absorbing all that heat?

00:44Scientists posit that it has to do with winds and geography, or rather lack of geography.

00:49Antarctica is vast and flat, meaning winds blowing over it and the Southern Ocean are unimpeded,

00:54blowing the cold waters northward, where they can absorb heat closer to the equator.