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Wednesday, April 27th, 2016

Sea Level Rise Could Come Much Sooner Than You Think

Author:     Chris Clarke
Source:     npr - KCET
Publication Date:     April 26, 2016
 Link: Sea Level Rise Could Come Much Sooner Than You Think
Stephan:   Yet another update reporting the collapse of the timeline on searise. Particularly pay attention to the tone of this story; you can see how shocked the NPR environmental reporters and their editors are by the speed at which this is occurring. The implications of this trend are very profound. It's easy to say 400 cities and towns along the U.S. coastline will be submerged in whole or part by the end of the century, and now possibly even sooner, perhaps by mid-century. Quite another to grapple with what that means and prepare for it. You don't hear anything serious about any of this in this election and the Republicans, the Congressional leadership at least, don't even believe it is real. This is real danger, not Muslim terrorism, upon which we lavish untold billions.
Charleston, S.C. flood Credit: NBC

Charleston, S.C. flood
Credit: NBC

It was just over a week ago that we reported on a study of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which seems to be adding more water than we’d expected to the world’s oceans. According to that study, melting off the West Antarctic is expected to boost sea levels by about a meter by the end of this century, bringing the total increase in sea level from all sources to two meters — six and a half feet — by 2100.

As it turns out, that recent news might already be obsolete, and far too optimistic. In a presentation at the Risk Management Society’s RIMS 2016 conference in San Diego April 12, a top scientific official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that recent, as-yet-unpublished data from Antarctica suggests that sea levels could rise three meters — almost ten feet — by the middle of the century. (emphasis added)

Margaret Davidson, NOAA’s senior advisor for coastal inundation and resilience science and services, […]

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