Sea Levels Rising Faster Then Ever Seen: Yahoo News, Live Science.com

[Stuart G]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110620/sc_livescience/sealevelisrisingfasterthaneverseen;_

Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
– Mon Jun 20, 6:05 pm ET


Sea levels are rising faster than they have been in the last two millennia, new research shows. The swelling seas match up well with historical temperature data, suggesting the warmer it is, the more the sea level rises.

"Sea-level rise is a potentially disastrous outcome of climate change," study researcher Benjamin Horton, of the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "Rising temperatures melt land-based ice and warm ocean waters."

Rising sea levels could threaten coastal cities, with 50 percent of the U.S. population living within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the coast. The faster sea levels rise, the more difficult it will be for cities to adjust and the more dramatic the erosion of the coastline will get, according to researchers.

[kestrel91316]

1. Wow. No one could have predicted this.

[leftyohiolib]

2. faster than we expected will be the description of the death of the human race

every time we hear of something like this it's always followed by the phrase like worse than we expected, faster than we expected, more than we predicted.