The seas are rising: how much they'll continue to rise is, to some very real degree, still up to us. If we embark on an effort to drastically cut CO2 emissions, scientists say we may be able to constrain sea level rise
The seas are rising: how much they'll continue to rise is, to some very real degree, still up to us. If we embark on an effort to drastically cut CO2 emissions, scientists say we may be able to constrain sea level rise to a matter of inches or at worst a foot or two over the next century (though even that much sea-level rise will have profound effects on coastal ecosystems. On the other hand, if we do nothing -- if the developed world doesn't change its ways, if China burns its coal, if the rainforests are completely logged and various feedback loops (melting permafrost, open water at the North pole) kick in to make things worse and speed melting of Greenland and Antarctica -- we could (at least according to the models run) see oceans rising 23, 30 even 80 feet.
Rising seas are not the most dire potential effect of global climate change, but they will cause serious damage and,