> www.eurekalert.org: Study: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming
> theenergycollective.com / Nature: Sea level rise may exceed worst expectations
> www.princeton.edu: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming
> www.nature.com: Sea level rise may exceed worst expectations
> www.nature.com: Probabilistic assessment of sea level during the last interglacial stage (Abstract)
Global sea level linked to global temperature
Amsterdam, December 8 2009 -
Scientists are proposing a simple relationship linking global sea-level variations on time scales of decades to centuries to global mean temperature.
This relationship is tested on synthetic data from a global climate model for the past millennium and the next century.
When applied to observed data of sea level and temperature for 1880–2000, and taking into account known anthropogenic hydrologic contributions to sea level, the correlation is >0.99, explaining 98% of the variance. For future global temperature scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, the relationship projects a sea-level rise ranging from 75 to 190 cm for the period 1990–2100.
> www.pnas.org: Global sea level linked to global temperature
Sea level rise could cost port cities $28 trillion
Berlin / Gland, November 24, 2009 -
A possible rise in sea levels by 0.5 meters by 2050 could put at risk more than $28 trillion worth of assets in the world's largest coastal cities, according to a report compiled for the insurance industry.
The value of infrastructure exposed in so-called "port mega-cities," urban conurbations with more than 10 million people, is just $3 trillion at present.
Titled Major Tipping Points in the Earth's Climate System and Consequences for the Insurance Sector, the report was written by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. It was issued by WWF and Allianz, the world's second largest international insurance and financial services company.
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and Allianz jointly warned that 'tipping points' will be reached if no action is taken to counteract climate change.
"If we don't take immediate action against climate change, we are in grave danger of disruptive and devastating changes," said Kim Carstensen, head of WWF's Global Climate Initiative, in a statement in Berlin.
> edition.cnn.com: Sea level rise could cost port cities $28 trillion
> www.businessgreen.com: Insurance giant warns climate "tipping points" in sight
> knowledge.allianz.com: Climate Tipping Points of No Return
> www.panda.org: Unchecked Climate change will put world at ‘tipping point’, WWF and Allianz report says
> assets.panda.org: Tipping points / Executive Summary
Rising sea levels: A tale of two cities
Rotterdam / Maputo, November 24, 2009 -
When people talk about the impact of rising sea levels, they often think of small island states that risk being submerged if global warming continues unchecked.
But it's not only those on low-lying islands who are in danger. Millions of people live by the sea - and are dependent on it for their livelihoods - and many of the world's largest cities are on the coast.
By 2050 the number of people living in delta cities is set to increase by as much as 70%, experts suggest, vastly increasing the number of those at risk.
To shed light the impact of rising sea levels, we are taking a close look at two very different cities, Rotterdam and Maputo , and their varying responses to the problem.
> news.bbc.co.uk: Rising sea levels: A tale of two cities
Dutch build more dunes against rising seas
Monster, November 20, 2009 -
On the beach at Monster, bulldozers painstakingly turn sand dredged from the bottom of the North Sea bed into dunes in an ambitious effort to safeguard the Netherlands from flooding.
> www.physorg.com: Dutch build more dunes against rising seas
> See related page in Dutch
Rising CO2 will cause catastrophic sea level rise finds Antarctic study
London, November 18, 2009 -
The British Antarctic Survey found that during past periods of high carbon dioxide, temperatures in Antarctica were up to 6C above current levels. This could cause a sea level rise of up six metres, threatening coastal cities like London, New York and San Francisco.
It is the latest research to warn of the consequences of increased greenhouse gases on the Earth's climate. Yesterday a study warned that carbon dioxide produced by man is now rising at record rates putting the world on a pathway for a 6C rise in temperature.
> www.telegraph.co.uk: Rising CO2 will cause catastrophic sea level rise finds Antarctic study
> www.telegraph.co.uk: Climate change: Temperatures to increase 6C by end of century
Maldives anger at climate inertia
Male, November 9, 2009 -
The president of the Maldives has strongly criticised the world's rich countries for doing too little to stem climate change.
Mohamed Nasheed said there was so little money offered to vulnerable nations that it was like arriving at an earthquake with a dustpan and brush.
> news.bbc.co.uk: Maldives anger at climate inertia
West Australia sea level rising fast
Perth, November 9, 2009 -
New figures have revealed that sea levels along the coast of Western Australia are rising at a rate double that of the world average.
Statistics from Australia's National Tidal Centre show levels have increased by 8.6 mm a year off the coast of the state capital Perth.
> news.bbc.co.uk: West Australia sea level rising fast
Maldivians face life as 'climate refugees'
Maldives sends climate SOS with undersea cabinet
Male, Sat Oct 17 / 22, 2009 -
The Maldivian president and ministers held the world's first underwater cabinet meeting on Saturday, in a symbolic cry for help over rising sea levels that threaten the tropical archipelago's existence.
The people of the Maldives face the prospect of life in a "climate refugee camp," President Mohamed Nasheed warned as he urged rich countries to clinch an effective global warming treaty.
> www.reuters.com: Maldives sends climate SOS with undersea cabinet
> news.yahoo.com / afp : Maldivians face life as 'climate refugees': president (Oct 22)
Kyoto Protocol Is a Lifeline for Island Nations
Bangkok, October 12 2009 -
"It was a little bit scary," says Dessima Williams, describing how the two weeks of United Nations climate change negotiations ended here on Oct. 9. "Our concerns need to be heard more."
Her assessment as the head of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group of 43 island nations spread across the oceans, amplifies the fear of a rise in sea levels from global warming. For some island nations, such as the Maldives, a rise in the Indian Ocean could see it wiped off the planet.
> www.ipsnews.net: Kyoto Protocol Is a Lifeline for Island Nations
Last time carbon dioxide levels were this high: 15 million years ago, scientists report
Los Angeles, October 7 2009 -
"The last time carbon dioxide levels were apparently as high as they are today — and were sustained at those levels — global temperatures were ~3 to 6°C warmer and sea level 25 to 40 meters higher than present, there was no permanent sea ice cap in the Arctic and very little ice on Antarctica and Greenland," said the paper's lead author, Aradhna Tripati, a UCLA assistant professor in the department of Earth and space sciences and the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
> www.ucla.edu: Last time carbon dioxide levels were this high: 15 million years ago, scientists report
> e360.yale.edu: Current CO2 Levels May Be Highest in 15 Million Years
> www.sciencemag.org: Coupling of CO2 and Ice Sheet Stability Over Major Climate Transitions of the Last 20 Million Years
How will future sea-level rise linked to climate change affect coastal areas?
October 5th, 2009 -
The anticipated sea-level rise associated with climate change, including increased storminess, over the next 100 years and the impact on the nation's low-lying coastal infrastructure is the focus of a new, interdisciplinary study led by geologists at The Florida State University.
> www.physorg.com: How will future sea-level rise linked to climate change affect coastal areas?
Two meter sea level rise unstoppable: experts
Oxford, September 30 2009 -
A rise of at least two meters in the world's sea levels is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University on Tuesday.
"The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable," said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany's Potsdam Institute and a widely recognized sea level expert.
"There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions."
Rahmstorf said the best outcome was that after temperatures stabilized, sea levels would only rise at a steady rate "for centuries to come," and not accelerate.
Scientists say that ice melt acquires a momentum of its own - for example warming the air as less ice reflects less heat, warming the local area.
"Once the ice is on the move, it's like a tipping point which reinforces itself," said Wageningen University's Pier Vellinga, citing various research.
"Even if you reduce all the emissions in the world once this has started it may be unstoppable. I conclude that beyond 2 degrees global average temperature rise the probability of the Greenland ice sheet disintegrating is 50 percent or more."
"(That) will result in about 7 meters sea level rise, and the time frame is about 300-1,000 years."
> www.reuters.com: Two meter sea level rise unstoppable: experts
> www.eci.ox.ac.uk: Presentations 4 Degrees and Beyond
Prof Pier Vellinga (VU-Amsterdam, Wageningen):
> Sea level rise and impacts in a 4+°C World (slides)
> idem audio
Prof Stefan Rahmstorf (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research):
> Sea-level rise in a 4°C world (slides)
> idem audio
Impacts of Climate Change Coming Faster and Sooner
The Sundarbans in Bangladesh seem to be doomed during our children's life
Washington, September 25 2009 -
The pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).
An analysis of the very latest, peer-reviewed science indicates that many predictions at the upper end of the IPCC's forecasts are becoming ever more likely.
Climate researchers now predict the planet will warm by 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century even if the world's leaders fulfill their most ambitious climate pledges, a much faster and broader scale of change than forecast just two years ago, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Environment Program.
Some scientists are now warning that sea levels could rise by one to two metres by 2100 and five to ten times that over following centuries, instead of 1.5 feet, as the IPCC had projected.
"Allready we are committed to sea level rise over the next millenium, with one meter likely for the next century but with 5 to times that in the following centuries," says the UNEP report.
> www.unep.org: New Science Report Underlines Urgency for Governments to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen
> www.reuters.com: Droughts, melts signal climate change quickening: U.N.
> www.washingtonpost.com: New Analysis Brings Dire Forecast Of 6.3-Degree (Fahrenheit) Temperature Increase
New York City Girds Itself
for Heat and Rising Seas
New York, September 10 2009 -
By the end of the century, New York’s climate could resemble that of present-day Raleigh, North Carolina and its harbor could easily rise by two feet or more. Faced with this prospect, the city is among the first urban centers to begin changing the way it builds its infrastructure — and the way it thinks about its future.
> e360.yale.edu: New York City Girds Itself for Heat and Rising Seas
Warming Arctic's global impacts outstrip predictions
Genève, September 2 2009 -
Warming in the Arctic could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world’s population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools, and extreme global weather changes, according to a new WWF report.
The Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications report, released today, outlines dire global consequences of a warming Arctic that are far worse than previous projections. The unprecedented peer-reviewed report brings together top climate scientists who have assessed the current science on arctic warming.
www.panda.org: Warming Arctic's global impacts outstrip predictions
www.panda.org: Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications Executive summary
Ups and downs of sea level projections
RealClimate, September 1 2009 -
The scientific sea level discussion has moved a long way since the last IPCC report was published in 2007 (see our post back then). The Copenhagen Synthesis Report recently concluded that “The updated estimates of the future global mean sea level rise are about double the IPCC projections from 2007?. New Scientist last month ran a nice article on the state of the science, very much in the same vein. But now Mark Siddall, Thomas Stocker and Peter Clark have countered this trend in an article in Nature Geoscience, projecting a global rise of only 7 to 82 cm from 2000 to the end of this century.
www.realclimate.org: Ups and downs of sea level projections
Nile Delta: 'We are going underwater. The sea will conquer our lands'
Cairo, August 21 2009 -
The Nile Delta is under threat from rising sea levels. Without the food it produces, Egypt faces catastrophe.
www.guardian.co.uk: Nile Delta: 'We are going underwater. The sea will conquer our lands'
Mekong Delta May Be Inundated By Rising Sea
Hanoi, August 21 2009 -
More than a third of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, where nearly half of the country's rice is grown, will be submerged if sea levels rise by 1 meter (39 inches), an environment ministry scenario predicted.
A sea level increase of that magnitude would also inundate a quarter of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's biggest city and home to more than 6 million people, according to the extreme scenario, outlined in the newspaper Tuoi Tre on Thursday.
Environmental scientists have long listed Vietnam, with its lengthy coastline and vast swathes of low-lying ground, as one of the most vulnerable countries on earth to climate change.
planetark.org: Mekong Delta May Be Inundated By Rising Sea
Small Island Nations Demand More Emissions Cuts
United Nations, July 12 2009 -
This week's pledges by G8 leaders to cap increases in the world's temperature are insufficient, a group of small island countries that face potential catastrophe from climate change said on Friday.
planetark.org: Small Island Nations Demand More Emissions Cuts
Close relationship between past warming and sea-level rise
Much of the European coast would be affected by 2 metres (red) of sea level rise. Sea levels will take a couple of thousand years to rise 25 metres (yellow). The maps show the areas that lie within 2 and 25 metres of present sea levels (Image: Google – Map data © 2009 PPWK, Tele Atlas. Overlay: heywhatsthat.com)
Southampton, / Tübingen / Bristol, June 22 2009 —
Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, along with colleagues from Tuebingen and Bristol have reconstructed sea-level fluctuations over the last 520,000 years.
Comparison of this record with data on global climate and CO2 levels from Antarctic ice cores suggests that even stabilization at today's CO2 levels may commit us to much greater sea-level rise over the next couple of millennia than previously thought.
> www.physorg.com: Close relationship between past warming and sea-level rise
> www.newscientist.com: Earth's coastlines after sea-level rise, 4000 AD
> www.nature.com: Antarctic temperature and global sea level closely coupled over the past five glacial cycles
See also:
> www.pages-igbp.org / Pages News June 2009: Understanding sea level: Ways forward from the past
See also:
> www.umces.edu / E Rohling et all: High rates of sea-level rise during the last
interglacial period (Dec 15 2007)
> > www.pages-igbp.org / Pages News April 2007: High rates of sea-level rise during the last
interglacial period / Page 25: MIS 11 Rocks! The smoking gun of a catastrophic + 20 m eustatic sea-level rise
Sea-level rise higher than expected
Southampton, / Tübingen / Bristol, June 22 2009 —
Current carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere may commit us to sea-level rises of up to 25 metres, says new research based on a comparison of Antarctic ice temperature records with new sea-level data from the Red Sea.
planetearth.nerc.ac.uk: Sea-level rise higher than expected
Carbon Dioxide Higher Today Than Last 2.1 Million Years
ScienceDaily (June 21, 2009) — Researchers have reconstructed atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 2.1 million years in the sharpest detail yet, shedding new light on its role in the earth's cycles of cooling and warming.
www.sciencedaily.com: Carbon Dioxide Higher Today Than Last 2.1 Million Years
Ocean temperatures and sea level increases 50 percent higher than previously estimated
Livermore, Cal/USA, June 19 2009 — New research suggests that ocean temperature and associated sea level increases between 1961 and 2003 were 50 percent larger than estimated in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
> www.enn.com: Ocean temperatures and sea level increases 50 percent higher than previously estimated
Extra sea level rise because of Greenland Melt
Hurricane barriers floated to keep sea out of NYC
Map shows proposed barriers to protect New York City from storm surges caused by hurricane and sea level rise
New York, May 31st, 2009 -
When experts sketch out nightmare hurricane scenarios, a New York strike tends to be high on the list.
New York, Boston and other cities on North America's northeast coast could face an extra rise in sea level this century that would exceed forecasts for the rest of the planet if Greenland's ice sheet keeps melting as fast as it is now, researchers said on Wednesday.
> www.physorg.com: Hurricane barriers floated to keep sea out of NYC
> www.agu.org: Rapid change in freshwater content of the Arctic Ocean
> www.reuters.com: Greenland ice could fuel severe U.S. sea level rise
Flood risk from Antarctic ice 'overestimated'
Cross section of the West Antarctic ice sheet showing the bedrock and the Filchner Ronne ice shelf on the left and the Ross ice shelf on the right. (Image: J. Bamber, University of Bristol)
London, April 17 2009 -
The precariously moored West Antarctic ice sheet probably won't collapse into the ocean all in one go as the climate warms. But the bad news, says a researcher, is that the sections most likely to be released into the ocean would raise sea levels globally by 3.3 metres – and rather more on the shores of North America.
> www.newscientist.com: Flood risk from Antarctic ice 'overestimated' but still 'high'
> news.bbc.co.uk: Ice sheet melt threat reassessed
> www.independent.co.uk: Melting ice could cause gravity shift
Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly
London, April 17 2009 -
Evidence from fossil coral reefs in Mexico underlines the potential for a sudden jump in sea levels because of global warming, scientists report in a new study.
The study, being published Thursday in the journal Nature, suggests that a sudden rise of 6.5 feet to 10 feet occurred within a span of 50 to 100 years about 121,000 years ago, at the end of the last warm interval between ice ages.
“The potential for sustained rapid ice loss and catastrophic sea-level rise in the near future is confirmed by our discovery of sea-level instability” in that period, the authors write.
> www.nytimes.com: Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly
> www.foxnews.com: Sea Levels Could Rise 10 Feet in 50 Years
> www.nature.com: Rapid sea-level rise and reef back-stepping at the close of the last interglacial highstand (Abstract)
> www.ifm-geomar.de: Rapide Meeresspiegelschwankungen in Warmzeiten
> climateprogress.org: Nature sea level rise shocker: Coral fossils suggest “catastrophic increase of more than 5 centimetres per year over a 50-year stretch is possible.” Lead author warns, “This could happen again.”
Sea also:
> www.nature.com: Rohling et al: High rates of sea-level rise during the last interglacial period (Abstract)
> Rohling: Fast-Rising Sea Levels in the Red Sea (Dec 26 2007)
> www.sciencemag.org: Anne de Vernal and Claude Hillaire-Marcel: Natural Variability of Greenland Climate, Vegetation, and Ice Volume During the Past Million Years (Abstract)
> Greenland was really green (July 2007)
Scilly Isles could have to be abandoned because of global warming
London, March 21 -
One of Britain's most beautiful locations - described as the Maldives of the Atlantic - may have to be abandoned because global warming could make it uninhabitable, experts have warned.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Scilly Isles could have to be abandoned because of global warming
Carbon-neutral goal for Maldives
Male, March 15 2009 -
The Maldives will become carbon-neutral within a decade by switching completely to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, its leader has said.
President Mohamed Nasheed told the BBC the Maldives understood better than most what would happen if the world failed to tackle climate change.
His tiny country is one of the lowest-lying on Earth and so is extremely vulnerable to rises in sea level.
He said he hoped his plan would serve as a blueprint for other nations.
news.bbc.co.uk: Sea-Level Rise Poses New Flood Risk To California
Sea-Level Rise Poses New Flood Risk To California
Los Angeles, March 12 2009 -
California's farms and cities may be left high and dry by prolonged drought, but climate change is expected to leave much of the state's fabled shoreline awash in excess seawater before too long.
Nearly 500,000 people and $100 billion worth of property in coastal California are at risk of severe flooding from rising sea levels this century unless new safeguards are put in place, researchers reported.
www.planetark.org: Sea-Level Rise Poses New Flood Risk To California
www.enn.com: California panel urges 'immediate action' to protect against rising sea levels
gristmill.grist.org: California has much to lose from rising sea levels, study says
We should be alarmed about rising sea levels
London, March 11 2009 -
The oceans are stirring. Deep beneath the sea, primeval forces have been unleashed that may engulf us all – unless we take to our boats to escape the rising tides.
Scientists have dramatically increased forecasts of rising sea levels, and the results could rival science fiction, argues Fred Pearce.
www.planetark.org: We should be alarmed about rising sea levels
Sea levels rising faster than expected: scientists
Copenhagen, March 10 2009 -
The U.N.'s climate change panel may be severely underestimating the sea-level rise caused by global warming, climate scientists said on Monday, calling for swift cuts in greenhouse emissions.
The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, the scientists suggested.
Earlier UN estimates were too low and sea levels could rise by a meter or more by 2100.
The projections did not include the potential impact of polar melting and ice breaking off, they added.
The implications for millions of people would be "severe", they warned.
www.reuters.com: Sea levels rising faster than expected: scientists
news.bbc.co.uk: Sea rise 'to exceed projections'
Rising sea levels subject of run-up to international climate talks
Copenhagen, March 10 2009 -
Melting ice sheets could raise sea levels high enough to flood coastal areas around the globe by the end of the century, according to scientists gathering in Denmark today for a three-day climate-change conference. The phenomenon could affect regions including Florida, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and the Maldives.
www.sciam.com: Rising sea levels subject of run-up to international climate talks
Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures
Copenhagen, March 8 2009 -
Rising sea levels pose a far bigger eco threat than previously thought. This week's climate change conference in Copenhagen will sound an alarm over new floodings - enough to swamp Bangladesh, Florida, the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary.
www.guardian.co.uk: Scientists to issue stark warning over dramatic new sea level figures
www.telegraph.co.uk: Rising sea levels from global warming 'could wipe out Norfolk Broads'
Climate Changes Makes Refugees in Bangladesh
March 2 / 6, 2009, -
Bangladesh and countries like it are on the frontlines of mass migrations as a result of global warming.
> www.sciam.com: Climate Changes Makes Refugees in Bangladesh part 1
> www.sciam.com: How Climate Changes Makes Refugees in Bangladesh - part 2
Coral atolls and sea level rise
Solomon Islands, March 5 2009 -
Much has been written of late regarding the impending demise of the world's coral atolls due to sea level rise.
Recently, here in the Solomon Islands, the sea level rise has been blamed for salt water intrusion into the subsurface "lens" of fresh water under some atolls.
Beneath the surface of most atolls, there is a lens shaped body of fresh water which floats on the seawater underneath.
www.reuters.com: Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels
We must shake off this inertia to keep sea level rises to a minimum
Change in Sea Level in cm. Click on picture to see the article and full graph in relation to temperature and CO2 concentration.
London, March 3 2009 -
Björn Lomborg's claim that sea levels are not rising faster than predicted are unfounded and used by those wanting to downplay climate change, says Stefan Rahmstorf. "Global sea level is rising, and faster than expected. We need to honestly discuss this risk rather than trying to play it down."
www.guardian.co.uk: We must shake off this inertia to keep sea level rises to a minimum
www.pik-potsdam.de: Recent Climate Observations Compared to Projections
www.pik-potsdam.de: A Semi-Empirical Approach to
Projecting Future Sea-Level Rise
www.pik-potsdam.de: Climate Change - State of the Science
Dutch readers could also read:
De zeespiegelstijging valt volgens het IPCC helemaal niet mee (March 30 2007)
Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels
Geneva, February 25 2009 -
The Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming faster than previously thought, raising world sea levels and making drastic global climate change more likely than ever, international scientists said.
New evidence of the trend was uncovered by wide-ranging research in the two areas over the past two years in a United Nations-backed program dubbed the International Polar Year (IPY), they said.
www.reuters.com: Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels
news.bbc.co.uk: Polar Year 'hailed as a success'
afp.com: Scientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt
West Antarctic ice sheet collapse even more catastrophic for U.S. coasts
The fate of FLorida and Lousiana if we’re myopic and greedy enough to let the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapse.
February 5th, 2009 -
A new study published in Science Magazine finds that sea level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) would likely be 25% higher for North America than previously estimated.
The catastrophic increase in sea level, already projected to average between 16 and 17 feet around the world, would be almost 21 feet in such places as Washington, D.C., scientists say, putting it largely underwater. Many coastal areas would be devastated. Much of Southern Florida would disappear.
climateprogress.org: West Antarctic ice sheet collapse even more catastrophic for U.S. coasts
www.reuters.com: Antarctic ice sheet collapse may swamp U.S. coasts
www.physorg.com: Sea level rise could be worse than anticipated
www.sciencedaily.com: Collapse Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Would Likely Put Washington, D.C. Largely Underwater
www.sciencemag.org: The Sea-Level Fingerprint of West Antarctic Collapse (Febr 6 2009)
www.cresis.ku.edu: Sea Level Rise Maps
Rising Sea Salinates India's Ganges: Expert
Kolkata, February 3, 2009 -
Rising sea levels are causing salt water to flow into India's biggest river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren in the country's east, a climate change expert warned Monday.
planetark.org: Rising Sea Salinates India's Ganges: Expert
Mapping In A One Meter Sea Level Rise
The curve shows the sea level from the year 200 to the year 2100. The future rise in sea level of 1 m is calculated from global warming of 3 degrees in this century. The dotted line indicates the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's prediction. The blue shade indicates the calculations' degree of uncertainty. Credit: Aslak Grinsted, Niels Bohr Institutet
Copengagen, January 11, 2009 -
New research indicates that the ocean could rise in the next 100 years to a meter higher than the current sea level - which is three times higher than predictions from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. The groundbreaking new results from an international collaboration between researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, England and Finland are published in the scientific journal Climate Dynamics.
www.spacemart.com: Mapping In A One Meter Sea Level Rise
www.springerlink.com: Reconstructing sea level from paleo and projected temperatures 200 to 2100 AD (abstract)
Netherlands to strengthen flood fortifications
The Hague, December 18, 2008 -
The Dutch government on Thursday unveiled a multi-billion dollar plan to reinforce dykes and the coastline and augment fresh water supplies in the face of rising sea levels due to global warming.
Two-thirds of the Netherlands lies below sea-level and the country is increasingly worried about the threat of devastating floods.
The government's national water plan proposes strengthening hundreds of kilometres (miles) of dykes along the North Sea, adding massive sand deposits to the coast, increasing river drainage capacity, and expanding the freshwater Ijsselmeer (lake) north of Amsterdam.
www.terradaily.com: Netherlands to strengthen flood fortifications
Sea level could rise by 150cm, US scientists warn
London, December 16 2008 -
Sea level rise due to global warming will "substantially exceed" official UN projections and could top 150cm by the end of the century, according to a report from the US Geological Survey on the risks of abrupt climate change. Such a rise would be catastrophic, seeing hundreds of millions of people affected by flooding.
The new report warns that on our current emissions path, we face the severe risk of abrupt climate change impacts.
What is stunning is that these warnings come from the United States Geological Survey — the Bush Administration (!).
> climateprogress.org: US Geological Survey stunner: Sea-level rise in 2100 will likely “substantially exceed” IPCC projections, SW faces “permanent drying” by 2050
> www.climatescience.gov: Abrupt Climate Change Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.4
US Report: Abrupt Climate Shifts May Come Sooner, Not Later
> www.guardian.co.uk: Sea level could rise by 150cm, US scientists warn
Here comes the flood
Inhabitants of the Maldives plan to buy a new homeland, as sea level rise threatens to drown the archipelago.
December 11 2008 -
Policymakers must start to view mass migration as a form of adaptation so that the global response to climate-induced migration is one of facilitation rather than neglect.
Two leviathans are about to collide on the world stage of science and politics — climate change and migration1. Their combination brings us to a tipping-point that could spawn a phenomenon of a scale and scope not experienced in human history2. Beyond reducing the greenhouse gases that drive global warming, we are now faced with the task of finding ways to deal with the impact of climate change. Next in line, or perhaps even ahead of mitigation, adaptation is the new game in town.
www.nature.com: Here comes the flood
Island nations slam slow U.N. progress on climate adaptation
Poznan, December 11 2008 -
Tuvalu, a Pacific country vulnerable to rising seas, joined forces with other island nations at climate change talks in strongly criticising slow progress on launching a U.N. fund to help them adapt to the effects of global warming.
Apisai Ielemia, Tuvalu's prime minister, accused "some key industrialised countries" of trying to make the Adaptation Fund - which will be funded by a levy on carbon offsets from clean energy projects - inaccessible to those most in need.
"We are deeply disappointed with the manner some of our partners are burying us in red tape," he told the gathering of environment ministers in Poznan, where nearly 190 governments are working on details of a new treaty to fight climate change.
www.alertnet.org: Island nations slam slow U.N. progress on climate adaptation
More about the climate conference in Poznan
Not waving but drowning: Island states plead at UN talks
Poznan, December 9 2008 -
Dozens of small island nations threatened by climate change have taken their case to the UN talks here, saying rising seas are already lapping at their shores and may eventually wash some of their number off the map.
An alliance of 43 tropical island states has set down proposals for capping global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times.
www.terradaily.com: UN climate chief downbeat about a complete deal for 2009
Victims of global warming could sue oil and power companies
London, December 9 2008 -
Flood victims and those affected by extreme weather conditions could soon be able to sue oil and power companies they blame for global warming, according to a climate change expert.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Victims of global warming could sue oil and power companies
Climate Change Quickens, Seas Feared Up 2 meters
Oslo, 25 November 2009 -
Global warming is happening faster than expected and at worst could raise sea levels by up to 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) by 2100, a group of scientists said on Tuesday in a warning to next month's U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen.
In what they called a "Copenhagen Diagnosis," updating findings in a broader 2007 U.N. climate report, 26 experts urged action to cap rising world greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 or 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
"Climate change is accelerating beyond expectations," a joint statement said, pointing to factors including a retreat of Arctic sea ice in summer and melting of ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica.
"Accounting for ice-sheets and glaciers, global sea-level rise may exceed 1 meter by 2100, with a rise of up to 2 meters considered an upper limit," it said. Ocean levels would keep on rising after 2100 and "several meters of sea level rise must be expected over the next few centuries."
> planetark.org: Climate Change Quickens, Seas Feared Up 2 meters
> copenhagendiagnosis.org: Updating the World on the latest Climate Science
> copenhagendiagnosis.org: Executive summary: The most significant recent climate change findings
Sea Surges Could Uproot Millions In Nigeria Megacity
Lagos, (Nigeria), November 20, 2008 -
Millions of people in Nigeria could be displaced by rising sea levels in the next half century, as ocean surges swamp some of Africa's most expensive real estate and its poorest slums, scientists say.
www.planetark.com: Sea Surges Could Uproot Millions In Nigeria Megacity
Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy a new homeland
Maldives: typical housing almost lost to sealevelrise
London, November 10 2008 -
The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has told the Guardian.
www.guardian.co.uk: Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy a new homeland
guardian.co.uk: The last days of paradise
www.cnn.com: Sinking island nation seeks new home
How much will sea level rise?
London, September 4 2008 -
How much will sea level rise is the question people have been putting a lot of thought into since the IPCC AR4 report came out. We analysed what was in the report quite carefully at the time and pointed out that the allowance for dynamic ice sheet processes was very uncertain, and actually precluded setting a upper limit on what might be expected. The numbers that appeared in some headlines (up to 59 cm by 2100) did not take that uncertainty into account.
www.realclimate.org: How much will sea level rise?
Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m'
London, September 4 2008 -
Sea levels globally are very unlikely to rise by more than 2m (7ft) this century, scientists conclude.
Major increases would have to be fuelled by a faster flow of glaciers on the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets.
But writing in the journal Science, a US team concludes that a rise of 2m would need glaciers to reach speeds that are "physically untenable".
news.bbc.co.uk: Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m'
www.eurekalert.org: Global sea-rise levels by 2100 my be lower than some predict, says CU-Boulder study
sciencenow.sciencemag.org: Seas to Rise Faster This Century
treasury.gov.uk (Stern Report): Sea level rise as a defining feature of dangerous interference with the climate system
Analysis of past glacial melting shows potential for increased Greenland ice melt and sea level rise
Madison, (Wisconsin), August 31 2008 -
Researchers have yet to reach a consensus on how much and how quickly melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will contribute to sea level rise. To shed light on this question, scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research analyzed the disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, the last ice sheet to melt completely in the Northern Hemisphere and the closest example of what can be expected to happen to the Greenland Ice Sheet in the next century.
www.eurekalert.org: Analysis of past glacial melting shows potential for increased Greenland ice melt and sea level rise
www.eurekalert.org: Ice Age lesson predicts a faster rise in sea level
West Africa: Coastline to be submerged by 2099
Slum housing in the Ebute Metta district of Lagos, Nigeria, September 2007 / Photo: Dulue Mbachu/IRIN
Accra, 25 August 2008 (IRIN) - Swathes of West Africa’s coastline extending from the orange dunes in Mauritania to the dense tropical forests in Cameroon will be underwater by the end of the century as a direct consequence of climate change, environmental experts warn.
"The coastline [as it is now] will be completely changed by the end of this century because the sea level is rising along the coast at around two centimetres every year," said Stefan Cramer, Nigeria director of Heinrich Boll Stiftung, a German environmental NGO.
West Africa: Coastline to be submerged by 2099
Stark warning on Britain's shrinking coast
London, August 18 2008 -
Stretches of Britain's coastline are doomed and plans will soon have to be drawn up to evacuate people from the most threatened areas, the new head of the Environment Agency warns today.
Britain must surrender some erosion-hit areas to the sea, said Lord Smith, a former cabinet minister, as it will be impossible to defend them all from being overwhelmed.
www.independent.co.uk: Stark warning on Britain's shrinking coast
www.telegraph.co.uk: Evacuation plans needed due to coastal erosion, says Environment Agency
Key ocean mission goes into orbit
Vandenberg Airbase (FLA/US), June 20, 2008 -
A space mission that will be critical to our understanding of climate change has launched from California.
The Jason-2 satellite is launched on a mission to measure the shape of the world's oceans and track sea level rise. The Jason-2 satellite will be taking readings with an accuracy of better than 4cm.
Its data will track not only sea level rise but reveal how the great mass of waters are moving around the globe.
news.bbc.co.uk: Key ocean mission goes into orbit
Disaster-Prone Deltas Next Climate Risk - Ecologist
Washington (US), June 16, 2008 -
Some of the world's most productive and populous places -- river deltas from the Mekong to the Mississippi -- are ripe for disasters made worse by climate change, an ecological catastrophe expert said.
In fact, said marine biologist Deborah Brosnan, these disasters are already occurring.
www.planetark.com: Disaster-Prone Deltas Next Climate Risk
www.tsunamireefactionfund.org / Deborah Brosnan: If Nature Bats Last, Are We On Her Team?
How Bangladesh Is Preparing for Climate Change
May 12 2008 -
Dutch engineers are helping people in Bangladesh build dikes, polders and water-retaining structures to protect them against recurring floods. Despite climate change, the country could even grow. Ultimately, though, the greatest threat in Bangladesh comes not from water but from political chaos.
www.spiegel.de: How Bangladesh Is Preparing for Climate Change
World Sea Levels To Rise 1.5m by 2100
Sea level rise in New York (source: reuters.com)
Vienna, April 16/22, 2008 -
Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people, new research showed on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com: Sea level Forecast is Widely Inaccurate, according to New Study
www.planetark.com: World Sea Levels To Rise 1.5m by 2100
news.bbc.co.uk: Forecast for big sea level rise
Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare
Abdul Majid is feeding his ducks
Dhaka, April 13 / 15, 2008 -
Abdul Majid has been forced to move 22 times in as many years, a victim of the annual floods that ravage Bangladesh. There are millions like Majid, 65, in Bangladesh and in the future there could be many millions more if scientists' predictions of rising seas and more intense droughts and storms come true.
www.reuters.com: Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare
See also the ZDF special: Wenn das ewige Eis schmilzt / Rückkehr der Sintflut (Apr 15)
www.hinduonnet.com: Stranded in the Sunderbans (Feb 24)
www.youtube.com: The 2007 flood
Plan to allow sea to flood Norfolk villages
London, March 28 2008 -
Large swathes of Norfolk, including six villages, could be flooded under a controversial plan to deal with the effects of climate change.
The proposal would see Britain effectively admit defeat in the battle to maintain coastal defences and around 16,000 acres (25 square miles) of land in the Norfolk Broads would be allowed to flood.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Plan to allow sea to flood Norfolk villages
www.telegraph.co.uk: Norfolk Broads 'could be lost to sea in a year'
Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier
London, March 22 2008 -
A fear that sea levels will rise far faster than predicted this century has led to a revision of the plan to protect London from a devastating flood caused by the sort of storm surge in the North Sea that resulted in the closure of the Thames Barrier March 21 st.
www.telegraph.co.uk:Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier
Greenhouse Gas Increase from U.S. Power Plants Highest Since 1998
Washington, March 18 2008 -
Carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants rose 2.9 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to data analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project. That's the largest annual increase in nine years, and it outpaced demand for electricity, according to the report.
The impact will last well beyond a year, warns EIP Director Eric Schaeffer: "Because CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of between 50 and 200 years, today's emissions could cause global warming for up to two centuries to come."
If that's not depressing enough, try this on for size: Nine scientists, including ubiquitous NASA climate guru James Hansen, have written a draft paper saying that the globe has already passed the safe point for atmospheric CO2 concentration, and we should rapidly reduce emissions to approximately 1988 levels. Which is easier said than done.
www.environmentalintegrity.org: Greenhouse Gas Increase from U.S. Power Plants Highest Since 1998
www.grist.org: An interview with renowned climate scientist James Hansen
www.iop.org / Jim Hansen: Scientific reticence and sea level rise
Dutch to explore new ways to defend coastline
Amsterdam (Nl), February 1 , 2008 - The Dutch government said on Friday it would explore new ways of protecting its coastline from the effects of climate change, including the use of ground-breaking sensor technology.
www.reuters.com: Dutch to explore new ways to defend coastline
Fast-Rising Sea Levels in the Red Sea
London, 26 December, 2007 -
Scitizen interviews Dr Eelco Rohling, who, along with colleagues, studied the changes in salinity of Red Sea water. Their research illustrates that , per century, sea levels rose well above the IPCC's estimated rise (the IPCC does not account for dynamic ice-sheet processes.)
scitizen.com: Fast-Rising Sea Levels in the Red Sea
www.soes.soton.ac.uk: High rates of sea-level rise during the last
interglacial period
meltwaterpulse.blogspot.com: M.I.S. 5e Meltwater Pulse
Carbon Cuts a Must to Halt Warming - US Scientists
San Fransisco (US), December 17, 2007 -
There is already enough carbon in Earth's atmosphere to ensure that sea levels will rise several feet (meters) in coming decades and summertime ice will vanish from the North Pole, scientists warned on Thursday.
To mitigate global warming's worst effects, including severe drought and flooding, people must not only cut current carbon emissions but also remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, they said.
www.planetark.org: Carbon Cuts a Must to Halt Warming - US Scientists
Seas could rise twice as high as predicted: study
Washington, December 16, 2007 -
The world's sea levels could rise twice as high this century as U.N. climate scientists have predicted, according to researchers who looked at what happened more than 100,000 years ago, the last time Earth got this hot.
news.bbc.co.uk: Rising seas 'to beat predictions'
www.reuters.com: Seas could rise twice as high as predicted: study
www.climateark.org: Sea levels could rise faster than predicted, scientists warn
www.nature.com: High rates of sea-level rise during the last interglacial period
Islanders seek climate summit help
Kilu, (Papua New Guinea), December 5, 2007 - Squealing pigs lit out for the bush and Filomena Taroa herded the grandkids to higher ground last week when the sea rolled in deeper than anyone had ever seen.
What was happening? "I don't know," the sturdy, barefoot grandmother told a visitor. "I'd never experienced it before."
www.cnn.com: Islanders seek climate summit help
City-scale flooding disasters predicted by 2070
London, December 4 2007 -
Millions more people across the world are going to be at risk from flooding in the future (2070) because of climate change and population increases.
And as many as 150 million people in the world's major cities - more than three times the 40m currently - will have to rely on flood defences for protection by 2070, according to a major new study.
But even then city-scale disasters are likely to become regular events across the world.
The gloomy forecasts come from the first stage of the largest study on urban coastal flood exposure ever undertaken.
The total value of assets exposed in the 136 port cities analysed is 3,000 billion (three trillion) dollars -- or around five percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005, it says.
Miami, Greater New York, New Orleans, Osaka-Kobe, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Nagoya, Tampa-St. Petersburg (Florida) and Virginia Beach (Virginia) are the most valuable pieces of real estate at risk.
>www.telegraph.co.uk: City-scale flooding disasters predicted by 2070
>www.telegraph.co.uk: Table of cities most exposed to coastal flooding
>tyndall.uea.ac.uk: Climate change could triple population at risk from coastal flooding by 2070 (pdf)
>www.oecd.org: Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes (pdf)
>www.planetark.com: Insurers Call for 25-Year Flood Strategy
>www.terradaily.com: Climate change: Asia's mega-deltas in frontline from flood risk
Climate change may wipe some Indonesian islands off map
Jakarta, December 3, 2007 - Many of Indonesia's islands may be swallowed up by the sea if world leaders fail to find a way to halt rising sea levels at this week's climate change conference on the resort island of Bali.
www.alertnet.org: Climate change may wipe some Indonesian islands off map
Island Nations Plan for Rising Seas, Mass Migration
Male (Maldives), November 15, 2007 -
Countries usually evacuate their citizens because of war or a sudden and catastrophic natural disaster. For the Pacific island state of Kiribati, the climate change disaster facing the nation is no less dramatic but on a slower time scale and means preparing its 100,000 inhabitants for lives in nations less vulnerable to wild weather and rising seas.
www.planetark.com: Island Nations Plan for Rising Seas, Mass Migration
www.planetark.com: Bangladesh and Eastern India on Cyclone Alert
Climate change threatens human rights: small island states
Male, (Maldives), November 13, 2007 - Representatives of 26 of the world's small island states met in the Maldives capital Male on Tuesday to draft a resolution identifying climate change as a threat to human rights.
www.reuters.com: Climate change threatens human rights: small island states
Rising Seas Threaten Africa's Coastline - Unep
Johannesburg, November 9, 2007 -
Africa's coastal infrastructure faces increasing danger of erosion from rising sea levels caused by climate change, the head of the UN Environment Programme said on Thursday.
www.planetark.org: Rising Seas Threaten Africa's Coastline - Unep
Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History
New York, September, 24/25 2007 -
Ultimately, rising seas will likely swamp the first American settlement in Jamestown, Va., as well as the Florida launch pad that sent the first American into orbit, many climate scientists are predicting. In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased.
Global warming - through a combination of melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warmer waters expanding - is expected to cause oceans to rise by about 39 inches. It will happen regardless of any future actions to curb greenhouse gases, several leading scientists say. And it will reshape the nation.
edition.cnn.com: Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History
www.abqtrib.com: Seas will rise 39 inches in next century, scientests say History
Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century - or 25 metres?
London, August 25 2007 -
When Al Gore predicted that climate change could lead to a 20-foot rise in sea levels, critics called him alarmist. After all, the International Panel on Climate Change, which receives input from top scientists, estimates surges of only 18 to 59 centimetres in the next century.
But a study led by James Hansen, the head of the climate science program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University, suggests that current estimates for how high the seas could rise are way off the mark - and that in the next 100 years melting ice could sink cities in the United States to Bangladesh.
www.theglobeandmail.com: Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century - or 25 metres?
www.guardian.co.uk: Scientists warn on climate tipping points
United Kingdom: Second Thames flood barrier planned
London's drowning in the movie The Flood
London, August 25 2007 -
A new £20 billion Thames barrier to save London from a potentially disastrous flooding threat is the centrepiece of a series of measures planned by the Government.
news.bbc.co.uk: Second Thames flood barrier planned
news.bbc.co.uk: London's drowning
www.telegraph.co.uk: Second Thames flood barrier planned
Global Warming Causing Mediterranean Sea to Rise, Threatening Egypt's Lush Nile Delta
Alexandria, Egypt, August 24 2007 -
Millions of Egyptians could be forced permanently from their homes, the country's ability to feed itself devastated.
That's what likely awaits this already impoverished and overpopulated nation by the end of the century, if predictions about climate change hold true. The World Bank describes Egypt as particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, saying it faces potentially "catastrophic" consequences.
www.enn.com: Global Warming Causing Mediterranean Sea to Rise, Threatening Egypt's Lush Nile Delta
Sea Rise Seen Outpacing Forecasts Due To Antarctica
Ny Alesund, August 23 2007 -
A thaw of Antarctic ice is outpacing predictions by the UN climate panel and could in the worst case drive up world sea levels by 2 metres (6 ft) by 2100, a leading expert said on Wednesday.
www.planetark.com: Sea Rise Seen Outpacing Forecasts Due To Antarctica
S.O.S.: Pacific islanders battle to save what is left of their country from rising seas
Tuvalu (TU), July 16, 2007 -
Veu Lesa, a 73-year-old villager in Tuvalu, does not need scientific reports to tell him that the sea is rising. The evidence is all around him. The beaches of his childhood are vanishing. The crops that used to feed his family have been poisoned by salt water. In April, he had to leave his home when a "king tide" flooded it, showering it with rocks and debris.
news.independent.co.uk: S.O.S.: Pacific islanders battle to save what is left of their country from rising seas
London's small but relentless dip
London, July 12 2007 -
A new assessment of land and sea level changes in London and the Thames estuary has been made by scientists.
news.bbc.co.uk: London's small but relentless dip
Sea level rise might be several meters
Scientists: Planet Earth today is in "imminent peril"
London, June 19 2007 -
The Earth today stands in imminent peril and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.
They also implicitly criticise the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for underestimating the scale of sea-level rises this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets.
Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is in "imminent peril".
In a densely referenced scientific paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A some of the world's leading climate researchers describe in detail why they believe that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the "gravest threat" of climate change.
environment.independent.co.uk: Scientists: Planet Earth today is in "imminent peril"
Steffen: IPCC underestimates sealevel rise
Global Warming and the Melting of Greenland
Swiss Camp, Greenland Ice Cap, June 7, 2007 -
Dr. Konrad Steffen is the director of University of Colorado at Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and a veteran researcher of Arctic climate. He discussed the accelerating melting of Greenland's ice cap and its effects on global ocean levels in an interview with Reuters on May 18 at his field research camp.
www.planetark.com: Global Warming and the Melting of Greenland
Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point
Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall according to a NASA survey done between 1992 and 2002. It also had a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documented for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves. Credit: NASA/SVS
Washington, May 30 / June 4 2007 -
NASA and Columbia University Earth Institute research finds that human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth’s climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet.
Lead author James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, concludes: “If global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise at the rate of the past decade, this research shows that there will be disastrous effects, including increasingly rapid sea level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones.”
Hansen's boss, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, said in a radio interview that while global warming is changing Earth's climate, he's not convinced that it is "a problem we must wrestle with."
The NASA chief -- whose agency has come under fire in Congress for cutting several programs designed to monitor climate change -- also says it's "rather arrogant" for people to take the position that today's climate is the optimal one.
environment.independent.co.uk 03062007: 'Global warming is three times faster than worst predictions'
www.ens-newswire.com 01062007: Earth's Climate Approaches Dangerous Tipping Point
www.nasa.gov 05302007: Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point
pubs.giss.nasa.gov: Dangerous human-made interference with climate: a GISS modelE study (pdf 6,1 mb)
www.sfgate.com 01062007: Head of NASA downplays global warming
pravda.ru 01062007: NASA chief says global warming may not be a concern, but scientists criticize comments
www.npr.org: NASA Chief Questions Urgency of Global Warming
www.npr.org: NASA Scientist Hansen Critiques Bush's Strategy
www.panda.org / Climate Witness: Robert Swan, Antarctica
www.sciencedaily.com: Earth's climate close to tipping point
'45 cm rise in sea-level will destroy Sundarbans'
New Delhi, April 24 2007 - Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove, faces a threat from global warming and a mere 45 cm rise in the sea level will destroy 75 per cent of the forest spread over 10,000 sq km in West Bengal and Bangladesh, a UN study said.
www.hindu.com: '45 cm rise in sea-level will destroy Sundarbans'
Rising seas threaten Bergen
Bergen, April 23, 2007 -
Climate change and rising sea levels are posing huge threats to the historic city of Bergen on Norway's west coast. Large areas of downtown face submersion, and the ancient wharf known as Bryggen is especially vulnerable.
www.aftenposten.no: Rising seas threaten Bergen
That sinking feeling
Sydney, April 22, 2007 -
The scientific evidence is undeniable. And sea-level rises inevitable. So why is no one interested in the plight of our nearest neighbours, asks Erin O'Dwyer.
www.smh.com.au: That sinking feeling
news.independent.co.uk: Bangladesh: A nation in fear of drowning
Cities at Risk of Rising Sea Levels
London, March 28, 2007 -
More than two-thirds of the world's large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday.
www.physorg.com: Cities at Risk of Rising Sea Levels
www.climateark.org: One in Ten at Risk from Rising Seas, Storms, Study Suggests
Tiny island with a global warning
London, March 28, 2007 - (BBC) -
The tiny Indian island of Ghoramara, in the delta where the River Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal, is a symbol of the crisis the world is facing as it struggles to feed a growing population.
news.bbc.co.uk: The island of Ghoramara is gradually disappearing
The IPCC sea level numbers
London, March 27, 2007 - (BBC) -
The sea level rise numbers published in the new IPCC report (the Fourth Assessment Report, AR4) have already caused considerable confusion. Many media articles and weblogs suggested there is good news on the sea level issue, with future sea level rise expected to be a lot less compared to the previous IPCC report (the Third Assessment Report, TAR).
Some articles reported that IPCC had reduced its sea level projection from 88 cm to 59 cm, some even said it was reduced from 88 cm to 43 cm ....
www.realclimate.org: The IPCC sea level numbers
Island people swallowed by the sea
London, 03 March 2007 -
This week saw the launch of International Polar Year, an initiative in which scientists from 60 countries will study the Arctic and Antarctic, with the major focus on climate change.
The BBC's David Willis travelled to the remote Alaskan island of Shishmaref, a community that is being destroyed by climate change.
www.climateark.org: Island people swallowed by the sea
www.arctic.noaa.gov: Village of Shishmaref facing evacuation
Build inland, UN climate report warns
New York, March 2, 2007 -
An international panel of scientists has proposed that all countries cease building on coastal land that is less than a metre above high tide so as to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Build inland, UN climate report warns
Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
London, February 20, 2007 -
A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
news.independent.co.uk 160207: Scientists sound alarm over melting Antarctic ice sheets
Bangladesh: At the mercy of climate change
London, February 19, 2007 -
It is more exposed than any other country to global warming. And a series of unusual events - from dying trees to freak weather - suggest its impact is already being felt. Justin Huggler reports from the Sundarbans nature reserve.
news.independent.co.uk: Bangladesh: At the mercy of climate change
A Semi-Empirical Approach to Projecting Future Sea-Level Rise
Postdam, December 14 2006 -
A semi-empirical relation is presented that connects global sea-level rise to global mean surface temperature. It is proposed that, for time scales relevant to anthropogenic warming, the rate of sea-level rise is roughly proportional to the magnitude of warming above the temperatures of the pre–Industrial Age. This holds to good approximation for temperature and sea-level changes during the 20th century, with a proportionality constant of 3.4 millimeters/year per °C.
When applied to future warming scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this relationship results in a projected sea-level rise in 2100 of 0.5 to 1.4 meters above the 1990 level.
www.pik-potsdam.de: A Semi-Empirical Approach to
Projecting Future Sea-Level Rise
Climate Model Predicts Greater Melting, Submerged Cities
New York, May 24 2006 -
Over the past 30 years, temperatures in the Arctic have been creeping up, rising half a degree Celsius with attendant increases in glacial melting and decreases in sea ice. Experts predict that at current levels of greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide alone is at 375 parts per million--the earth may warm by as much as five degrees Celsius, matching conditions roughly 130,000 years ago. Now a refined climate model is predicting, among other things, sea level rises of as much as 20 feet, according to research results published today in the journal Science.
www.sciam.com: Climate Model Predicts Greater Melting, Submerged Cities
Probable extirpation of a breeding colony of Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) on Bermuda by Pleistocene sea-level rise
Townsville (Australia), October 2003 -
Albatrosses (Diomedeidae) do not occur in the North Atlantic Ocean today except as vagrants, although five species were present in the early Pliocene. No fossil breeding sites of albatrosses were known previously. The timing of extinction of albatrosses in the North Atlantic was likewise unknown.
Deposits that formed near present-day sea level along the southeastern shore of Bermuda contain remains of a former breeding colony and include intact eggshells and bones of embryos, juveniles, and adults of Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus), a critically endangered species now confined to a few islets in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
These deposits are correlated with the middle Pleistocene Lower Town Hill Formation, which at other sites have a radiometric age of 405,000 years ago. This equates with the marine isotope stage 11 interglacial, which culminated in a rise in sea-level to >+20 m.
Bones of a juvenile Short-tailed Albatross were also found in beach deposits at +21.3 m from this same interglacial. We interpret the extirpation of albatrosses on Bermuda as probably resulting from lack of nesting sites protected from storm surges over the little emergent land that remained at the height of the marine isotope stage 11 sea level rise.
www.pnas.org Climate Model Predicts Greater Melting, Submerged Cities
A +20 m middle Pleistocene sea-level highstand (Bermuda and the Bahamas) due to partial collapse of Antarctic ice
Nassau (Bahamas), April 1999 -
Marine deposits at +20 ± 3 m on the tectonically stable coastlines of Bermuda and the Bahamas support the hypothesis of a partial collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet during the middle Pleistocene.
geology.gsapubs.org: A +20 m middle Pleistocene sea-level highstand (Bermuda and the Bahamas) due to partial collapse of Antarctic ice
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