Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The average world ocean temperature from June through August was the warmest since 1880 for any Northern Hemisphere summer, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
The summer ocean surface temperature was 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit (16.95 Celsius), which is 1.04 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, the agency said today in a statement. The combined land and ocean surface temperature for the period was 61.2 degrees Fahrenheit, the third-warmest on record.
Climate change blamed on greenhouse-gas emissions is warming ocean and land temperatures, producing more severe storms, the United Nations said last year in a report. In June, the U.S. Global Change Research Program said global warming is causing drought, rising sea levels and flooding from heavy rainfall in the U.S., threatening agriculture, coastal regions, water resources and public health.
An increase in global temperatures of less than 7 degrees Fahrenheit would expose hundreds of millions of people around the world to water shortages and put millions at risk as well from coastal flooding, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel said in 2007 global emissions need to be cut by 50 percent to 85 percent by 2050 to stand a chance of keeping the temperature increase to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since industrialization in the 1800s.
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