A recent, rapid heating of the world's oceans has alarmed scientists concerned that it will add to global warming.

This month, the global sea surface hit a new record high temperature. It has never warmed this much, this quickly.

Scientists don't fully understand why this has happened.

But they worry that, combined with other weather events, the world's temperature could reach a concerning new level by the end of next year.

Experts believe that a strong El Niño weather event - a weather system that heats the ocean - will also set in over the next months.

Warmer air is melting the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet

If you could shape an ice cube out of all the ice losses from Greenland and Antarctica over the past three decades, it would stand 20km high.

An international group of scientists who work with satellite data say the acceleration in the melting of Earth's ice sheets is now unmistakable.

They calculate the planet's frozen poles lost 7,560 billion tonnes in mass between 1992 and 2022.

Seven of the worst melting years have occurred in the past decade.

Mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica is now responsible for a quarter of all sea-level rise.

This contribution is five times what it was 30 years ago.

The latest assessment comes from the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise, or Imbie.

Global animal populations are declining, and we've got limited time to try to fix it.

That's the upshot of a new report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London, which analyzed years of data on thousands of wildlife populations across the world and found a downward trend in the Earth's biodiversity.

According to the Living Planet Index, a metric that's been in existence for five decades, animal populations across the world shrunk by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018.

Not all animal populations dwindled, and some parts of the world saw more drastic changes than others. But experts say the steep loss of biodiversity is a stark and worrying sign of what's to come for the natural world.

"The message is clear and the lights are flashing red," said WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini.

According to the report's authors, the main cause of biodiversity loss is land-use changes driven by human activity, such as infrastructure development, energy production and deforestation.

Climate change may become the leading cause of biodiversity loss

Cattle graze near a fire in Amazonas, Brazil, on Sept. 22. A new report analyzed years of data on wildlife populations across the world and found a downward trend in the Earth's biodiversity.

Kenya's Wildlife and Tourism ministry says that climate change is now a bigger threat to elephant conservation than poaching.

In the past year, the country has recorded 179 elephant deaths due to the ongoing drought affecting the Horn of Africa.

Following consecutive seasons of poor rains, rivers and water pans have dried up and grasslands have shrivelled in the game reserves.

Australia has suffered a litany of natural disasters in recent years including historic bushfires

Australia's environment is in a shocking state and faces further decline from amplifying threats, according to an anticipated report.

The survey of Australia's ecological systems - conducted every five years - found widespread abrupt changes.

These can be blamed on climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining, it said.

The threats are not being adequately managed - meaning they are on track to cause more problems.