Oceans Will Rise Much More Than Predicted, NASA Says
Predictions from a few years ago already are outdated. “Sea levels are rising faster than they were 50 years ago, and it's very likely to get worse,” one scientist says.
Year by year, millimeter by millimeter, the seas are rising. Fed by melting glaciers and ice sheets, and swollen by thermal expansion of water as the planet warms, the world's oceans now on average are about eight inches higher than a century ago. And this sea change is only getting started.
The question is: How much higher will they go?
NASA scientists are now warning that recent projections seem too conservative: Since 1992, sea levels have increased by an average of 3 inches around the world. Three years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that by 2100 sea levels could rise 28 to 98 centimeters (11 to 38 inches), depending on the volumes of greenhouse gases emitted.
Even if greenhouse
