Sea Temperatures On The Rise
New research on global warming could indicate important changes ahead in the climate: The world's oceans are heating up.
CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell reports.
If the warm winter wasn't enough to convince you there's a change in the weather, a massive Antarctic iceberg twice the size of Delaware broke off Thursday. This is a casualty due in part to a world in hot water, scientists say.
A study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has brought a significant conclusion, with consequences for land and sea.
"It means we can expect a further increase in the temperature of the atmosphere," says Sydney Levitus of the NOAA Climate Laboratory.
The study finds in the upper level of the three major ocean basins - the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian - the average water temperature has been rising by more than half a degree in the past 40 years. This is a result of a natural shift in the flow of the oceans and increasing atmospheric greenhouse gasses - or global warming.
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But environmentalists say the study should be a wake-up call for the world to stop polluting the atmosphere and start getting a grip on global warming.
"We need to be careful. We are destroying the atmosphere. Things are getting worse," says David Hawkins of the Natural Resource Defense Council.
The study also provided evidence that oceans actually began heating up years before the Earth's surface - a finding that could be a breakthrough. In the future, scientists may be able to use ocean temperatures to forecast the Earth's climate decades in advance.