Seas Could Rise 8 Feet by 2100 With Urgent Action to Curb Climate Change

If no meaningful action was taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, global sea levels could rise to eight feet by 2100 and a full 50 feet by 2300.

Rutgers University, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Boston, and The University of New Brunswick

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The scientists reviewed the level of the future.

"There is much to know about the past, and the future is not a reason to ignore the challenge," study co-author and Rutgers' Ocean Institute, and Atmospheric Sciences Director Robert E. Kopp said in a song by Rutgers press release Saturday. "Carefully characterizing what's known and what's uncertain is crucial to managing the risks posed to coasts around the world."

Eleven percent of the world's population lives less than 33 feet above sea level, they are extremely vulnerable to any changes. However, if emissions are lower, the effects will be less devastating. Projections for moderate emissions estimate sea levels will rise 1.4 to 2.8 feet by 2100, 2.8 to 5.4 feet by 2150 and 6 to 14 feet by 2300.

Sea levels have already risen to 0.2 in. Since 2000 and, in the short term, are projected to rise to six to ten inches by mid-century.

More data published this week underlined the importance of reducing emissions. This research, released by the University of Southampton Monday, was published in the latest issue of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

The Southampton University researchers found that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. Celsius could halve sea level by 2100 compared to doing nothing: 40 centimeters (approximately 15.7 inches) instead of 78 centimeters (approximately 30.7 inches). By 2300, limiting warming to 1.5 meters (approximately 10 feet).

They also found that achieving 130,000 square kilometers (approximately 50,193 square miles) would be the result of a worst-case scenario of 740,000 square kilometers (approximately 285,715.6 square miles).

"Climate change mitigation will make a substantial difference to the inevitable impacts of sea-level rise, with between 1.5 percent and 5.4 percent of the world's population exposed to flooding in 2300 depending on how we change climate, "Southampton and Bournemouth University researcher and IPCC report chapter author Dr. Sally Brown said in the Southampton University press release.

But climate change mitigation has to come quickly.

"A carbon-neutral society is required by the 2040s to prevent warming above 1.5 ° C, or else we must prepare for the increased impacts of climate change on the coasts University of Southampton Ocean and Earth Science lecturer Dr. Philip Goodwin, two of whose studies have been quoted in the IPCC report, said.