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Ice thaw tipped to radically lift sea levels
Source: Agencies |
November 21, 2009, Saturday
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FAST-MELTING ice from Greenland and Antarctica will lead to a much sharper rise in sea levels than previously estimated, touching off flooding that will radically alter United States East Coast cities from Miami to Baltimore, according to a new study.
Climate change will cause a rise of at least 1 meter in sea levels by the end of this century, according to a review of scientific data by Clean Air-Cool Planet, an environmental group that calls itself nonpartisan.
It is in sharp contrast to a 2007 study by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said world sea levels could increase 18-59 centimeters by 2100.
"We are on our way to radically changing what the coasts look like," said Jim White, a professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, who worked on the study. "Norfolk could replace New Orleans as the poster child" for coastal flooding, he told reporters on Thursday.
Norfolk, Virginia, near Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, is home to the world's largest naval base.
The group said it based its conclusions on a study of ice melting by Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
The 2007 UN study linked most of its projected sea level rise to a natural expansion of water as it warms. But newer scientific data has focused more on the added impact of ice sheets sliding into oceans.
Climate change will cause a rise of at least 1 meter in sea levels by the end of this century, according to a review of scientific data by Clean Air-Cool Planet, an environmental group that calls itself nonpartisan.
It is in sharp contrast to a 2007 study by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said world sea levels could increase 18-59 centimeters by 2100.
"We are on our way to radically changing what the coasts look like," said Jim White, a professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, who worked on the study. "Norfolk could replace New Orleans as the poster child" for coastal flooding, he told reporters on Thursday.
Norfolk, Virginia, near Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, is home to the world's largest naval base.
The group said it based its conclusions on a study of ice melting by Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
The 2007 UN study linked most of its projected sea level rise to a natural expansion of water as it warms. But newer scientific data has focused more on the added impact of ice sheets sliding into oceans.
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