Water, Water Everywhere...

In a chilling report (fitting for a chilly day in Silver Spring, Md.) to be published in the journal Science, global warming induced sea level rise could be about 30% worse than predicted less than two years ago -- up to 21 feet 6 inches. If sea levels were to actually rise by that much, a global disaster would ensue. Much of the world's population and agriculturally productive land is located near coastlines at low elevations. As the sea rises, people will be displaced and food will likely become scarcer.

The reason for the updated projection of sea level rise is because scientists are gaining a better understanding of the true implications of the collapse of the massive West Antarctic glacier. According to the LA Times (citing the study):

the variability of the sea level rise from Antarctic ice melt would result from the gravitational force of the ice sheet, which pulls water toward it; changes in the Earth's rotation if the ice were removed; and a rebound of the ocean bottom, on which the massive glacier now rests.

So it is not just that the warming planet will melt the ice, it is also that the ocean floor will 'rebound' or rise after having the massive weight of a glacier removed from it and we are affecting the rotation of the earth!

What is truly alarming about this study is that it comes less than two years after the IPCC report, one of the most comprehensive and rigorous scientific studies ever. As each year passes and as we gather more information on the impacts of our carbon emissions, the implications of global warming grow worse. In short, the more we know about global warming, the more the magnitude of its impacts grows.

We cannot wait to fight global warming-- we need real solutions and we need them now. For I am not looking forward to the day when my home in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC is beachfront property.

Photo courtesy of the LA Times