Sea level may rise sooner than expected due to Polar melting

New research has proven that a global sea level rise is expected sooner than thought. Ice sheets near the North Pole are melting due to Earth’s warming and will result in a sea level rise of 22 feet. At this rate, in another 80 years the temperature will be 4° F warmer, a similar situation as 125000 years ago.

This is something to think about said Jonathan Overpeck of The University of Arizona. 125000 years ago we had a scenario comparable to the one we are expecting, Greenland was without ice, resulting in a 3 meter higher sea level. New discoveries suggest that there was an additional rise of 3 meters and no Artic Ice. Bette Otto-Bliesner of the Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado, states: “the focus of what we do is polar, the consequences are global”. Ice sheets melted long time ago and sea levels were much higher. The extra higher temperature needed is not much above the present. Ice sheets are melting right now. The new findings suggest the melting could speed up, raising sea level faster than about one meter of sea level rise per century. In the second half of the 21st century there will be no way back, Overpeck said, “We have to stop the emission of greenhouse gas dramatically. A 4 to 6 meters sea level rise will be inevitable if we don’t do something about these emissions in the near future. The next decade will be decisive so spread the news. Coastal regions are more susceptible to the impacts of giant waves. The rise would eventually inundate dense populated coastal areas worldwide”.

Overpeck, a professor of geosciences and director of Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at The University of Arizona, Otto-Bliesner and their colleagues are telling their new findings in a new report. A long list of scientists is at the end of this release. The National Science Foundation sponsored the research. The scientists used a computer model that they use to predict future changes in climate, the NCAR-based Community Climate System Model (CCSM), and combined it with ice sheet simulations to estimate what the Earth’s climate was like 125,000 years ago. The team also did research on the computer’s estimate of ancient climate data against data from natural recorders of ancient climate such as sediments, fossils and ice cores. The CCSM did a good job of estimating past climate changes. That provides the researchers extra confidence and information in the model’s predictions of future climate change. The study shows that melted water from Greenland and some Arctic sources raised sea level by as much as 3 meters during the Interglaciation period. However, coral structures indicate that the sea level actually rose 4 to 6 meters and large sediments under the Antarctic Ice Sheet show us that parts of the ice sheet vanished. Antarctic melting was the lead to the additional sea-level rise, Overpeck says. He said the higher sea level from melting water in the Arctic would have destabilized parts of the Antarctic ice sheet. A few years ago sea level has begun rising rapidly.

Scientists are worried, because unlike the Greenland Ice cap, the largest part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is below sea level. If it starts to melt, it could go fast, they say. Moreover, during the Last Interglaciation period, most of the warming was in the Arctic and only during summertime. Now the planet is warming at both sides year round. Learn much more about the significance and severity of the events in the future and how you can be prepared to save yourself and your loved ones. In addition, we’ll give you a free report on the “Labyrinth of Egypt” when you visit How To Survive 2012

Tagged with: 2012 predictions • Global Catastrophe • Polar Ice Melts

Filed under: Global Catastrophe • Predictions

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