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Scientists say the world’s oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change because almost all the excess heat absorbed by the planet ends up stored in their waters.

A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40 per cent faster on average than a UN panel estimated five years ago. The researchers also concluded that ocean temperatures have broken records for several straight years.

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“2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. “As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year.”

Photo by Olivier Dugornay/IFremer/Argo via The New York Times

As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer. They have slowed the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 per cent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases humans pump into the atmosphere.