A study published yesterday, Monday, May 20, 2019, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America suggests that global sea levels could rise by as much as seven feet by 2100 if our society’s treatment of the environment doesn’t change substantially. The authors of the study, which was titled “Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment,” hail from the likes of Rutgers University and the University of California at San Francisco, estimate that their prediction of global sea level rise exceeding two meters, or roughly 6.6 feet, by 2100 is at roughly 90 percent certainty.
This confidence level is some two-plus times higher than the certainty level published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their recent Fifth Assessment Report.
The aforementioned study is so substantial because climatologists have widely agreed that sea levels would rise some three feet by 2100 for the past two decades.
The reason why the world’s sea levels would rise is that ice sheets currently covering Greenland and Antarctica, two large land masses that hold a substantial amount of the world’s current stores of ice, would melt. Once global temperatures increase just two degrees Celsius from their current standings, Greenland would certifiably be a major contributor to global sea level rise. If temperatures increase by a margin of five degrees Celsius, Antarctica is also expected to contribute significantly to the world’s sea level rise.
Jonathan Bamber, the lead author in the study, believes that the five-degree-Celsius rise by 2100 is unlikely, fortunately.
One reason why the potential of sea level rise is so important is that, according to work published by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2013, is that upward of some 180 million people could be displaced from their homes if the global sea level rose just one meter. This would result from the loss of land roughly equal to the size of Britain, Germany, Spain, and France. If you aren’t aware, France, Spain, and Germany are among the largest countries in Europe in terms of land mass.
Currently, according to the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, global sea levels are rising at some three millimeters each year. However, as the global population rises and more people contribute to global warming and greater climate change due to not making good environmental choices, this sea level rise rate is expected to increase.
