<Anchor> The
global greenhouse gas concentration is reaching a new maximum every year.
Since more than 90% of the heat generated by greenhouse gases is absorbed into the sea, the temperature of seawater is also rising rapidly.
Because of this, it is difficult to see with our eyes, but the ecosystem under the sea is greatly shaken.
Reporter Seo Dong-gyun, a climate change investigative reporter.
<Reporter>
The emerald green sea of Jeju Island.
Last year, the average water temperature in the sea area of Jeju was 16.51 degrees, an average of 0.5 degrees higher than 30 years ago.
Compared to the global temperature, which has risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius in 170 years since the Industrial Revolution, the water temperature has risen very rapidly.
I went into the sea.
[Reporter Dong-Gyun Seo: This is the sea with a depth of 15m.
You can see the algae on the floor like this.
As the water temperature rises, algae are gradually disappearing.
Let's take a look around the sea from now on.]
Most of them are covered with corals and sea anemones, except for the common seaweed such as Ecklonia.
Inside the anemone, there are eggs of a tropical fish species, clownfish, and the tropical coral bubble stone coral takes up the largest position.
Seaweeds such as seaweed and seaweed, which like cold water, have decreased significantly, and conch and abalone that ate seaweed are also disappearing.
[Jeong Mae-ok/Haenyeo: There is no natural source, and conch is grown by eating Gamtae or seaweed, etc…
.
(We) used the sea as our home, but there will be nothing to catch in the future.]
The sea plant called seaweed is also losing its home due to the rise in water temperature.
When we looked at it together with the research team, the seaweed that had existed until 2018 has now disappeared, leaving only sand.
Seaweeds mainly live in coastal waters and store carbon through photosynthesis, and they are as good at capturing carbon as rainforests.
The sea forest, which has improved water quality and is also a spawning ground for various fish, is disappearing.
[Park Sang-ryul/Professor of Marine Life Sciences, Jeju National University: In Jeju Island, the increase in water temperature is clearly increasing, and the area of (seaweed) is gradually decreasing due to the increase in water temperature found in this way…
.]
Compared to the 1940s, the world has lost more than 30% of its habitat, and as they grow shorter and smaller, the amount of carbon they store is decreasing.
What seaweed gives is that the rate of climate change is accelerating.
On the other hand, species that prefer warm seas are growing rapidly.
The sea was full of green light, and as I got closer, blue waves covered the surface of the water.
It is a subtropical species called burdock, but the reproductive rate is so fast that the white carcass is full on the sandy beach.
[Sang-don Oh / Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do: (Does it still exist even if you remove it?) Right.
It increases every year.
We usually clear about 300 tons at a time in summer.
It tends to increase in quantity as the days go by.]
Domestic research teams are looking for ways to use green onions, which are difficult to treat, but have yet to come up with an answer.
[Sohn Young-baek/Director of Jeju Characteristics Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology: In winter, they must die or disappear, but now, in the case of the coast of Jeju, the problem is that the water temperature has already risen to a temperature sufficient for green seaweed to live.]
Jeju sea area and East China Sea area is one of the most warming regions of the United States by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Water temperature is rising 3.5 times faster than the global average.
A recent study by an overseas research team found that if the worst-case temperature rise continues, more than 90% of sea creatures could be at risk of extinction by 2100.
Now, the ocean is sending a crisis warning to our lives through ecosystem changes.
(Video coverage: Seo Jin-ho·Kim Se-ae, Video editing: Yoon Tae-ho, Design: Kim Jong-un·Ban So-hee)