Global sea levels are rising faster and faster. It spells catastrophe for coastal towns and cities

About 2000 years ago, the global sea levels have been slightly varied. That changed in the twentieth century. They have started to rise and have not stopped since then – and speed acceleration.

Scientists are scrambling to understand what this means for the future as President Trump returns Oceanic control agencies.

Since 1993, satellites have kept monitoring the world’s oceans, allowing scientists to see clear on how they behave. What they revealed is worrisome.

Sea levels were unexpectedly high last year, according to NASA analysis Satellite data.

However, the most important thing is a long -term trend. The annual sea level increase has increased by more than twice over the past thirty years, which has led to the level of the world sea level 4 inches increase Since 1993.

“It seems as if we were putting our foot on the gas pedal,” said Benjamin Hammamington. While other climate signals fluctuate, the world’s surface level is “continuous height,” as he told CNN.

It explains the troubles for the future. Scientists have a good idea of ​​the amount of sea level rise by 2050 – around it 6 inches Global, and as much as 10 to 12 inches In the United States. Last 2050, things become very mysterious.

“We have a large group of uncertainty,” said Dirk Nutz, head of marine ice at Hamburg University. “The numbers rise, higher and higher quickly.”

He told CNN that the world can easily see 3 additional seal feet of sea level by 2100. It may take hundreds of years to reach this level. Scientists simply do not know enough yet to show what will happen.

What scientists explain about the cause of height: the pollinated global warming phenomenon.

The oceans absorb about 90 % of the extra heat that is produced primarily by burning fossil fuels, and with the high temperature of the water. The heat in the ocean and the atmosphere also leads Greenland melted and Ice sheets in AntarcticaAnd that carries enough fresh water to raise the levels of the global sea surface by about 213 feet.

Snow sheets have been transferred Almost two thirds From the long-term sea level, despite last year-the most important survey-planet-workers turned, making the ocean circumference heat the main driver.

Nutz said that it is possible to increase about 3 feet already closed, because we “have pushed the regime strongly.” The big question is, how quickly this happens?

The ice boards are the largest state of uncertainty, as it is not clear how quickly the reaction is with the high temperature of the world – whether they dissolve steadily or reach a turning point and collapse quickly.

From studying things like ice cores and sediments, scientists know Surprising and dramatic melting Notez said, thousands of years ago, but it is still unclear how operations can be revealed over the coming decades and centuries.

He said Antarctica is “the elephant in the room.” Disturbing changes It is revealed in this vast ice continent, which carries a sufficient amount of water to raise levels by 190 feet.

Nutz describes the ice cover as “the awakening giant:” It takes a long time to wake up but as soon as it wakes up, “It is very difficult to return it to sleep.”

It will take time for scientists to reveal what the future holds of iceboards and what this means to rise to sea level.

“There will be cases of great uncertainty that have been going on for decades,” said Robert Nichols, Professor of Climate Adaptation at East Anglia University.

Where is the most at risk?

The ocean is not as flat as the bathtub, and there are great differences in the way to rise sea level.

Some parts of the world see higher levels due to tangle of factors, including regional currents, corrosion and land transformations – some of them due to natural processes such as tectonic sheet movements, others for human activities including fossil fuels and extracting groundwater.

Halmanmington of NASA said the American coast is tracking higher than the global average and the top of the climate model expectations.

Gulf coast, where the Earth is drowned in a large part of it due to the extraction of oil, gas and groundwater, is a hot point.

Louisiana is particularly exposed to the high sea level of climate change meets with fast -thinking lands. The state has one of The highest land loss rates in the worldWith some areas with relative sea level rise, nearly four times the global average.

Outside the United States, the low -Pacific island states carry the high sea level, which is already a threat to its existence.

Over the next three decades, you will test islands like Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji At least 6 inches from sea level rise Even if the world reduces the pollution of heating the planet, according to NASA.

What are the effects?

The coastal societies in the world were built with an understanding of the place where the tide reaches. “Now we turn this normal,” said Hamiltton.

Indeed, coastal floods increase, even in the absence of large storms or heavy rains. William Sweet, an ocean photographer in the National Oceanic and Callement Administration, said that high tidal floods now have occurred two to three times since 1990 along most of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast in the United States.

Sea level rise also contributes to coastal corrosion, suffocating sewage systems and salty water leakage in the underground water supply.

The emerging seas will not be equal. In some places, 6 inches may mean more frequent floods during the tide; In other cases, this may lead to constant immersion, as water covers the streets and coastal lands for several months at one time. The difference depends on a set of factors, including land attacks.

The world can adapt to a slow sea level rise. Notz said: “We may have to transfer cities; you may have to move people around them, but there are ways to build and prepare.

This really happens. Activist Fiji George Nakoya of the Climate Group 350.org said: “The entire villages have been officially transported in Fiji.

However, if the pace is accelerating quickly, “it will be very difficult to adapt to it, because things are unfolding very quickly,” he said. He added that, as always, the most at risk will feel the greatest effects.

Many parts of the world are not well prepared. Nichols at East Anglia University said that the rise in sea level is an “unlimited” problem, as it is difficult to understand the effects of “a few inches height of height.”

Notez pointed out that humans are still controlling the extent of sea level rise over the coming decades and centuries by cutting emissions.

However, the global levels of pollution of the planet continue, and the Trump administration continues to retreat from climate policies, including Reducing Earth Science Research at NASANOAA’s sweeping staff discounts and U.S. withdrawal From global climate work.

“One of the big concerns with the current American administration is that it will not renew the satellites,” Nicoles said. This would take eyes from the oceans in a decisive time.

What the world chooses to do is an ethical issue, Notez said.

He said: “The type of sea level rise that we have to deal with is much smaller compared to what future generations should face.” The real disaster will come down the road when those who caused the problem no longer exist.

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