Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumUS coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns
Source: The Guardian
US coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 November 2012 00.01 GMT
Sea-level rise is occurring much faster than scientists expected exposing millions more Americans to the destructive floods produced by future Sandy-like storms, new research suggests.
Satellite measurements over the last two decades found global sea levels rising 60% faster than the computer projections issued only a few years ago by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The faster sea-level rise means the authorities will have to take even more ambitious measures to protect low-lying population centres such as New York City, Los Angeles or Jacksonville, Florida or risk exposing millions more people to a destructive combination of storm surges on top of sea-level rise, scientists said.
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The latest research, published on Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters, found global sea-levels rising at a rate of 3.2mm a year, compared to the best estimates by the IPCC of 2mm a year, or 60% faster.\
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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/28/us-coastal-cities-sea-level-rise
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Bay Ridge much easier now than when I was a kid. The water is clearly rising.
OnlinePoker
(5,727 posts)Two of the IPCC 4 scenarios had 2.0 mm per year as the bottom of a range that went to 4.3 and 4.5 mm per year respectively. 3.2 mm being right in the middle of this range does not mean sea levels are rising "much faster" than projected. Using the high end of those same ranges, you could say sea levels are rising much slower than projected, 40% less than estimated. Using the highest estimate in IPCC 4 of 5.9 mm per year would be 84% slower than projected.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-projections-of.html#table-spm-3