Oliver Milman, notwithstanding the flooding by current weather, opines that the current rate of global warming could raise sea levels by several meters over the coming century, rendering most of the world coastal cities uninhabitable and helping unleash devastating storms, according to a paper published by James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist who is considered the father of modern climate change awareness.
The research, published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, references past climatic conditions, recent observations and future models to warn the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets will contribute to a far worse sea level increase than previously thought.
Without a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the global sea level is likely to increase several meters over a timescale of 50 to 150 years, the paper states, warning that the Earth oceans were six to nine meters higher during the Eemian period, an interglacial phase about 120,000 years ago that was less than 1 degree C warmer than it is today.
Global warming of 2 degrees C above pre-industrial times, the world is already halfway to this mark, would be dangerous and risk submerging city streets, the paper said. A separate study, released in February, warned that New York, London, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai will be among the cities at risk from flooding by 2100.
The Hansen research, written with 18 international colleagues, warns that humanity would not be able to properly adapt to such changes, although the paper concedes its conclusions differ fundamentally from existing climate change assessments. The IPCC has predicted a sea level rise of up to one meter by 2100, if emissions are not constrained. Hansen, and other scientists, have argued the UN assessment is too conservative as it does not factor in the potential disintegration of the polar ice sheets.
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