The United Nations Meteorological Authority said that unprecedented heat waves in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean affected more than 10% of the ocean surface in 2024, which damaged coral reefs, and threatened the last remaining tropical ice river in the region with extinction.
The authority said, in its annual report, that the average temperatures in 2024 in the region-which covers Australia and New Zealand, as well as the countries of Southeast Asian Islands such as Indonesia and the Philippines-was about half a degree of degrees from the average period 1991-2020.
“A large part of the region has witnessed at least at least at some point during the year 2024, especially in the areas near the equator and south.”
The report also stated that the intense heat throughout the year affected 40 million square kilometers of the ocean, and new record temperatures were recorded in the Philippines and Australia. The ocean surface temperatures also destroyed records, while the total ocean temperature content was the second highest average annual, after 2022.
An unprecedented number of hurricanes, which experts attributed climate change, caused great destruction in the Philippines during October and November.
The report added that sea levels continue to rise more quickly than the global average, which is an urgent problem in an area that lives more than half of its population, 500 meters from the coast.
The report also referred to the satellite data that shows that the only tropical ice river in the region, which is located in Indonesia in the western part of the New Guinea Island, shrinks by up to 50% last year.
“Unfortunately, if this rate continues to lose, this ice river may disappear by 2026 or shortly after that,” said Thorington of the World Meteorological Organization, and one of the report.