Post by thegreenmeanie on Mar 10, 2009 20:01:37 GMT -5
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7935159.stm
The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested.
Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre 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.
Ten per cent of the world's population - about 600 million people - live in low-lying areas.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, had said that the maximum rise in sea level would be in the region of 59cm.
Professor Konrad Steffen from the University of Colorado, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, highlighted new studies into ice loss in Greenland, showing it has accelerated over the last decade.
Professor Steffen, who has studied the Arctic ice for the past 35 years, told me: "I would predict sea level rise by 2100 in the order of one metre; it could be 1.2m or 0.9m.
"But it is one metre or more seeing the current change, which is up to three times more than the average predicted by the IPCC."
I know there are a few people who once they saw the title of this article, and then if they bothered to read the part I posted are already salivating at the chance to attack the IPCC and the whole idea. My question is take away the fact that many of scientists believe we are helping to cause they changes on the planet. Pretend that you guys on the opposite side of the argument are 100% correct. Do you take these results serious?
You can't deny that more and more Arctic ice is melting, and that eventually it can threaten the coasts of N.America along with all the other continents. Is this becoming a tipping point to anyone or should we continue to wait it out and see what happens?
The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested.
Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre 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.
Ten per cent of the world's population - about 600 million people - live in low-lying areas.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, had said that the maximum rise in sea level would be in the region of 59cm.
Professor Konrad Steffen from the University of Colorado, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, highlighted new studies into ice loss in Greenland, showing it has accelerated over the last decade.
Professor Steffen, who has studied the Arctic ice for the past 35 years, told me: "I would predict sea level rise by 2100 in the order of one metre; it could be 1.2m or 0.9m.
"But it is one metre or more seeing the current change, which is up to three times more than the average predicted by the IPCC."
I know there are a few people who once they saw the title of this article, and then if they bothered to read the part I posted are already salivating at the chance to attack the IPCC and the whole idea. My question is take away the fact that many of scientists believe we are helping to cause they changes on the planet. Pretend that you guys on the opposite side of the argument are 100% correct. Do you take these results serious?
You can't deny that more and more Arctic ice is melting, and that eventually it can threaten the coasts of N.America along with all the other continents. Is this becoming a tipping point to anyone or should we continue to wait it out and see what happens?
