World Meteorological Day 2021 | WMO Expresses Concern Over Increasing Sea Ice Loss As World Warms Up

The UN agency cautioned that “big geographical and research gaps” remain in the Global Ocean Observing System amid increasing demand for forecasts and services despite technological advances that have revolutionized ocean monitoring globally and helped to understand its link to weather and climate.

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Ahead of the World Meteorological Day to be celebrated on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has explained that a key concern is increasing sea ice loss as the world warms up and said “less ice does not mean less danger and the consequences of a major accident in Arctic waters would be devastating for the environment”.

The UN agency said the WMO is “therefore trying to improve forecasts and warnings of both weather and ice conditions in polar regions”. 

The UN agency cautioned that “big geographical and research gaps” remain in the Global Ocean Observing System amid increasing demand for forecasts and services despite technological advances that have revolutionized ocean monitoring globally and helped to understand its link to weather and climate. 

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Underscoring the long-term threat from sea level rise, the WMO informed the sea level has risen by around 15 centimetres during the 20th century from glacier melt, the expansion of warmer sea waters and additions from former ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. 

“About 40 per cent of the global population live within 100 kilometres of the coast, there is an urgent need to protect communities from coastal hazards, such as waves, storm surge and sea level rise” via “multi-hazard” warning systems and forecasting,” said WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas. 

Asserting the “blue economy” is estimated at $3-6 trillion a year, accounting for more than three quarters of world trade and providing livelihoods for more than six billion people, the WMO noted millions of dollars in goods and hundreds of lives are still lost at sea each year due to extreme weather conditions such as high winds, large waves, fog, thunderstorms, sea ice and freezing spray. 

The UN agency described the ocean as “the Earth’s thermostat”, absorbing and transforming a significant portion of the sun’s radiation and providing heat and water vapour to the atmosphere.  

Although vast ocean currents circulate this heat around the planet, often for thousands of kilometres, human activities have increasingly distorted this natural ocean/atmosphere equilibrium, WMO maintained. 

The WMO also highlighted the fact that oceans absorb over 90 per cent of excess atmospheric heat trapped by greenhouse gases, which has come “at a heavy price as ocean warming and changes in ocean chemistry are already disrupting marine ecosystems and people who depend on them”. 

Underscoring the significance of the “24/7 work” of national weather centres in protecting lives and property “not just on land but also at sea”, the WMO said: “It is vital to improve decision support services to help mariners reach a balance between minimizing costs and routing, whilst also maximizing safety and avoiding hazardous maritime weather.”

Stating the Covid-19 crisis made matters worse when in March 2020, the governments and oceanographic institutions recalled nearly all oceanographic research vessels home, the WMO in a statement said: “It also reduced the capacity of commercial ships to contribute vital ocean and weather observations.”

“Ocean buoys and other systems could not be maintained, in some cases leading to their premature failure,” the UN agency added.