Visualizing Sea Level Rise: Exploring Sea Level Rise with FieldScope A University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian Lab and National Geographic Society project in collaboration with NOAA BWET program, MD Department of Natural Resources, DE and MD National Estuarine Research Reserve, and University of Virginia Blandy Experimental Farm
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Visualizing Sea Level Rise: Exploring Sea Level Rise with FieldScope A University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian Lab and National.
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•For every degree the climate warms, we are likely to lock in at least 6 feet of sea level rise—obviously that happens over time, as the melting global ice sheets that will contribute most to the rising oceans are somewhat delayed in responding.
•Looking at a 4˚ C rise in temperature, something which increasingly looks certain (due to collective inaction to constrain greenhouse gas emissions and a far too-slow effort to transition off fossil fuels), the study found that, over the next two millennia, the melting Antarctic ice sheet will contribute 50 percent of the sea level's rise, melting Greenland will contribute 25 percent, thermal expansion of the oceans contributes 20 percent and melting glaciers account for the remaining 5 percent.
Previous research, also coming from the Potsdam Institute, found that if temperatures rise continues past 2˚ C, there's a greater than 50 percent chance that the Greenland ice sheet will melt, causing over 20 feet of sea level rise, over the next 300-1,000 years. Melting in Antarctica contributes less than 10 percent to sea level rise today. The seemingly low amount that glaciers will contribute can be attributed to the study's long-term view of sea level rise – by the time Antarctica is contributing to the sea, half of the world's glaciers will have already melted back to their minimum level.