Science Panel To Tampa : Prepare For Up To 8 Feet Of Sea Level Rise By 2100

[hatrack]

EDIT

Maya Burke is the science policy coordinator with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and is co-facilitator of the Tampa Bay Climate Science Advisory Panel.

“The Climate Science Advisory Panel first put out a recommendation for projected sea-level rise in the Tampa Bay region back in 2015. And we recently completed a revision and update to those projections. On Monday I was able to share that information with the Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition’s steering committee of elected officials. And that was convened by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council.”

What are you telling us? How much is sea level going to rise in the next few decades?

“So, bottom line, our projections show that the Tampa Bay region is likely to experience about two to eight-and-a-half feet of sea-level rise by the year 2100.”

What’s causing sea-level rise?

“Sea-level rise is caused by the warming atmosphere, it physically causes the oceans to expand. That really has to do with these heat-trapping gasses – the greenhouse gas emissions – that humans are putting into the environment. The numbers are a little higher than the last time we made these projections. And a lot of that has to do with evolving science with regards to how fast and how much the land-based ice is melting.”

Is it that the ice is melting faster or we just have a better way to measure how fast it’s melting?

“It’s really both. I think there are some really dynamic feedback processes that are going on with regard to calving of glaciers and ice sheets. So that is causing melt rates to occur quicker than we initially thought.”

EDIT

https://www.wmnf.org/scientists-tampa-bay-prepare-8-5-feet-sea-level-rise/

[procon]

1. Didn't Florida ban any use of "climate change"

in any state report? As if the classic ostrich policy will somehow make the crisis disappear... No worries, yeah?

It won't be much longer before insurance companies stop providing policies to these risky areas because the state is deliberately shirking their responsibilities to minimize risks to life and property.

[mackdaddy]

2. My unscientific guesstimate is that by 2100 it could be way higher than 8 feet higher.

Greenland ice sheets represent about 40 feet of Sea level rise. The Antarctic Ice sheets over and additional 200 feet of sea level rise. Yes it will probably take some centuries to totally melt both ice sheets.

But I think with the current projections of global warming and the melting Arctic sea ice that loosing 10% of these ice sheet by 2100 is not an outside probability. And the melting will probably still be accelerating even then.

That would be 24 feet of sea level rise which would wipe out most all of our coastal cities.

Of course that also assumes that the will be any humans alive at that time to care about the sea level rise.