Book that Maldives vacation while you can: ocean levels 3" higher than 1992

[Recursion]

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/79730/20150827/oceans-now-three-inches-higher-compared-to-measurements-taken-in-1992.htm

Any small islands on your bucket list, get those visits out of the way now...

Experts have long feared that the warming planet caused by climate change would elevate sea level, a phenomenon with profound impacts on nations worldwide. Now, evidence provides proof that this concern is not unfounded.

Satellite measurements taken by NASA and its partners revealed that global seas have risen about three inches on average since 1992 with the increase in sea level worse in some locations at over nine inches.

U.S. space agency officials said that NASA will continue to conduct investigations of the global phenomenon with the hope that researchers will gain more knowledge about this through new and upcoming satellite missions.

NASA studied sea levels using satellite altimetry, which measures the time it takes a radar burst to hit the surface of the Earth and return to orbiting spacecraft with the measurement being extremely precise. The ICESat satellite also tracks the height of ice sheets using pulses of laser light.

Multiple factors are involved here: thermal expansion, glacier melt, etc. And that's not even counting coastal erosion in terms of the actual impact on coastlines.

[pampango]

1. I just read that 95% of excess global heat is stored in the oceans not the atmosphere.

Even if global warming stopped tomorrow the warmer ocean would continue melting glaciers for decades to come. Rising sea levels has become inevitable. The only question is how high.

[Recursion]

2. Yep. Ironically ice sheet melt can actually lower sea levels

Because it makes the ocean colder, which reduces thermal expansion.

There's a rock just sticking out of the water between Sri Lanka and India. They've argued for years (centuries, really) over who owns it. They both sent out crack naval fleets two years ago in a pissing contest over who owns that rock.

Problem was, when the flotillas got there, the rock was gone. Rising sea levels took it.

Global peace through environmental degradation