swissinfo.ch
Why ocean warming matters for landlocked countries such as Switzerland
The seas have never been this warm since records began. Rising ocean temperatures also affect life in land-locked countries. A refreshing dip in the sea? For swimmers who spent their August holidays in Mallorca, that was probably not the case. A buoy off the Balearic island logged a record temperature of 33°C, only a few degrees below a hot bath at home. “For the Mediterranean, this is truly an extraordinary temperature record,” Thomas Frölicher, professor of climate and environmental physics at the University of Bern, told Swissinfo. The anomaly is not limited to the Mediterranean, where in some areas water temperatures reached up to 6°C above the seasonal average. Globally, the average sea surface temperature reached 21.1°C this summer, surpassing the record set in 2024, the hottest year since measurements began, according to CopernicusExternal link, the European Earth observation programme. However, ocean warming, which has now reached 1.1-1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, goes far beyond uncomfortable swimming conditions. Its consequences extend to marine ecosystems and to the climate of land areas, including countries far from the coast, such as Switzerland. “What worries me most is that today’s exceptionally high ocean temperatures will become the norm within ten or 20 years,” Frölicher...
