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Loading...Sea Level Rise from Global Warming Is Unstoppable, Say Scientists
New research indicates that no matter what is done to halt global warming, sea levels will continue to rise for the next several centuries. The article by researchers from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, U.S. research organization Climate Central and the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research notes, “Though sea-level rise cannot be stopped for at least the next several hundred years, with aggressive mitigation it can be slowed down, and this would buy time for adaptation measures to be adopted.” Many previous studies have shown similar data, yet global action to curb carbon emissions and other efforts to mitigate global warming have been slow in coming.
While the situation is too complex to allow for precise predictions of the rate and degree of sea level rise, the data indicate that sea level rise will continue, no matter how much is done to stabilize temperatures, due to the thermal expansion of sea water and the melting of ice sheets and glaciers that is already underway. And, far from stabilizing, last month it was reported that carbon dioxide levels in the Arctic crossed the 400 parts per million mark. This is the first time a monthly average measurement for the greenhouse gas attained the 400 ppm mark in a remote location. Carbon dioxide levels globally, currently around 395 ppm, are at the highest level of any time in the past 800,000 years.
One-tenth of the world’s population lives in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding and are threatened by sea level rise. Research earlier this spring reveals that some 3.7 million Americans are at risk from flooding in coming decades. Last month U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported that the U.S. East Coast is already seeing a significantly higher rate and degree of sea level rise due to global warming: levels have risen an average of two inches worldwide since 1990, but have risen by 4.8 inches in parts of coastal Virginia.
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Read more: carbon dioxide, climatec change, environment, environmental issues, global warming, oceans, sea level rise
Image: by Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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+ add your ownReally Research shows! All you have to do is go to the ancient ports of Europe and see the steps that lead down to the mean low tide boundary. The old steps no longer and have not reached Mean Low Tide in over a thousand years. The ports had to extend the steps to the low tide water line. Ergo the the bottom is newer than the top.
Did you know that sea level a thousand years ago was higher then today.
OMG..
Wow.... this is a very serious & scary news :)
Will the world last until Dec 21, 2012?
Oh come on people, there is no such thing as global warming, it's all one big coincidence! Climate change deniers have all had lobotomies!
Grazie per l'articolo. Una brutta notizia veramente.
The single biggest contributor to global warming is the automobile. Leave your cars at home. Reserve your car for travel over 50 miles. Walk to the corner store (and shed some pounds). Take transit or bike to work every day.
The only thing I really wonder about anymore is whether the end of the world will come before or after I die....
Thanks for the article.
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