The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has warned that rising water temperatures as a result of climate change could cause the engines of British warships to fail.
During yesterday’s ‘Defence and Climate Change presentation by the Defence Committee, Lt Gen Richard Nugee, who advises the Ministry of Defence on how to make its operations more sustainable, stated that warmer waters might provide a ‘thermal blanket’
Ships rely on the cold oceans to cool their engines, thus a rise in water temperature due to global warming “may pose a challenge” for them.
Lt. Gen. Nugee stated, “Ship captains told me that the engines could fail at the current sea surface temperature of 38 to 40 degrees, let alone at 38 to 40 degrees.”
Therefore, there is something that we must comprehend and take action on to ensure that our engines can operate in such water.
According to a report published by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in May, ocean temperatures reached a record high in 2021.
The director of the UK’s Met Office for Climate Science and Services, Professor Albert Klein Tank, stated, “Around 90 percent of the heat from climate change is accumulated in the ocean, and last year’s record indicates that climate change is accelerating.”
In the next 50 years, the “deep ocean” might warm by an additional 0.36°F (0.2°C), according to a study by the Universities of Exeter and Brest.
The deep ocean, which is defined as water that is more than 700m (2,300ft) below the surface, holds the majority of the heat produced by humanity since the Industrial Revolution.
Since 2014, more than half of the world’s oceans have experienced extreme marine heat, which is now referred to as “the new normal.”
Lt. Gen. Nugee is a former senior British Army commander and the Lead of the 2021 Climate Change and Sustainability Review for the Ministry of Defense.
During yesterday’s session, he warned that Britain’s seaports might be submerged if temperatures rise by even 1.5°C.
The goal of limiting global warming to 2.7°F (1.5°C) was included in the Paris Agreement, which 191 governments and the European Union ratified in 2014.
If both the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets melted, according to the MoD’s climate expert, sea levels may climb 33 feet (10 meters).
In practical terms, this would imply that the runway in Gibraltar, for example, would be submerged.
Also, Port Stanley and the Falkland Islands, but Portsmouth and Devonport could not withstand 10 meters of sea level rise.
The combination of a rising sea level over time and more intense storms, which is another effect of climate change, will make it increasingly difficult to use our ports, and they may eventually be submerged.
Lt. Gen. Nugee did emphasize that it would “take time” to reach these outcomes, but if we were over the tipping point, it would be “almost impossible” to return.
In last year’s Climate Change and Sustainability Review, he cautioned that climate change was altering how the military fought, lived, and trained.
In his paper, he also suggested that future military vehicles may be powered by electricity, while others could run on recyclable materials and fuel.
