sea levels

18 Stories

UN Chief's SOS: 'The Ocean Is Overflowing'

Speaking from Tonga, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has a stark warning about climate change

(Newser) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants the bucks coming in to fight climate change to go way up in order to make sea levels go down, and he says there's no time to waste. Speaking from Tonga, Guterres called sea-level rise a "worldwide catastrophe" that's specifically endangering Pacific...

In Latest Climate Report, a 'Warning to Humanity'

Earth hit threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius over an entire year, with hottest January on record

(Newser) - World leaders walked away from the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference with the aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We've now hit that threshold over a yearlong period, European climate monitors announced Thursday. February...

Growing Threat to Sea Levels: 'Zombie Ice'
Growing Threat to Sea Levels:
'Zombie Ice'
new study
Aug 29, 2022 11:12 AM CDT

Growing Threat to Sea Levels: 'Zombie Ice'

Melting Greenland ice sheet expected to lose 3% of its mass, no matter what

(Newser) - "Zombie ice" from the massive Greenland ice sheet will eventually raise the global sea level by at least 10 inches on its own, according to a study released Monday. Zombie (aka doomed) ice is ice that's still attached to thicker areas of ice but is no longer getting...

Another SE Asian Nation May Be Moving Its Capital

Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is considering such a switch to provide relief to overcrowded Bangkok

(Newser) - Bangkok is beset by a slew of issues tied to overcrowding, including pollution, traffic congestion, and even sea level rise. That's led Thailand's prime minister to consider a drastic solution: moving the capital elsewhere. The two options that seem the most feasible in Prayut Chan-o-cha's mind, per...

Over 3 Days, 29B Tons of Ice Melted Here

Greenland is experiencing near-record melting of surface ice

(Newser) - Forget about ice skating in Greenland: The island nation's surface ice is melting at a nearly record rate as Europe's heat wave moves into the Arctic, CNN reports. And by melting, we mean 11 billion tons on Thursday alone; 11 billion tons on Wednesday, per the CBC ; and...

Rise in Sea Levels Turning Coastland Into 'Ghost Forests'

'It's dramatic and it's changing faster than it has before in human history'

(Newser) - They're called "ghost forests"—dead trees along vast swaths of coastline invaded by rising seas. The process has occurred naturally for thousands of years, but it has accelerated in recent decades as polar ice melts and raises sea levels, scientists say, pushing salt water farther inland and...

Miami Beach's Sand Comes From Elsewhere ... Problematically

It's pumped up sand from seafloor, and now that nearby sand is tapped out

(Newser) - Sand may seem like an infinite natural resource, but as cities with beaches around the world know all too well, it's anything but. And Miami Beach, Fla., is standing at a crossroads now that it, along with the US Army Corps of Engineers, has spent years pumping up sand...

5 Pacific Islands Have Vanished

Study says climate change is to blame

(Newser) - At 94, the leader of the Paurata tribe on Nararo Island has had to abandon his village. "The sea has started to come inland, it forced us to move up to the hilltop and rebuild our village there away from the sea," he says. Nararo is one of...

Seas Rising at Fastest Rate in Nearly 3K Years

They could rise up to 4 feet by 2100, say scientists

(Newser) - It's "extremely likely" that sea levels rose faster in the 20th century than at any other time in the previous 2,700 years "and the rise over the last two decades has been even faster," scientists say. A new study —based on "reconstructions" of...

DC Is Sinking, Literally
 DC Is Sinking, Literally 
in case you missed it
Aug 2, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

DC Is Sinking, Literally

Slow-moving process will make rising sea levels even worse, say geologists

(Newser) - It sounds like a metaphor but is geological reality: Washington, DC, is sinking. In fact, researchers led by a team at the University of Vermont predict that the ground will drop another six inches by the end of the century, reports UPI . The cause isn't man-made: It's the...

Rising Seas Wash Up WWII Skeletons

Climate change puts Marshall Islands at risk, official says

(Newser) - The Pacific Ocean is rising so quickly that it's washed up a little history—in the form of 26 dead soldiers from World War II, the BBC reports. At climate-change talks in Germany, Tony De Brum, foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, said spring tides did the damage: "...

Why the World Should Be Worried About Bangladesh
Why the World Should Be Worried About Bangladesh
in case you missed it
Mar 30, 2014 7:00 PM CDT

Why the World Should Be Worried About Bangladesh

Poor nation will be amongst those hardest hit by climate change

(Newser) - Bangladesh only produces 0.3% of the world's greenhouse gases. But few nations are poised to suffer more as sea levels rise due to climate change, the New York Times points out, in an in-depth piece on the nation's plight. The country is extremely flat, low, prone to...

Rising Sea Levels Locking in Fate of US Cities

 316 US Cities 
 Are Doomed 
 to Watery Fate 
in case you missed it
Aug 3, 2013 12:35 PM CDT

316 US Cities Are Doomed to Watery Fate

Study: Another 1,100 cities could share same future

(Newser) - It's already too late to cut greenhouse-gas emissions enough to prevent 316 American cities from eventually being partially submerged by rising seas, and the number whose fate is being "locked in" is constantly rising, a chilling new study finds. Researchers—who warn that emissions already released will cause...

Virginia Lawmaker: 'Sea Level Rise' Is 'Left-Wing Term'

GOP Del. Chris Stolle gets 'liberal' terms excised from study

(Newser) - Virginia lawmakers will study the dangers of sea level rise provided one phrase is never uttered: "sea level rise." Republican state lawmakers agreed to commission a study on the phenomenon as long as "left-wing" terms like "sea level rise" and "climate change" were removed. Democrats,...

Greenland, Antarctic Ice Melting Faster Than Expected

Ice sheets could send sea level up 6 inches by 2050

(Newser) - The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting significantly faster than previously estimated, according to a new international report led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Unless the trend is reversed, the melting ice sheets will push global sea levels up six inches by 2050, the scientists...

Climate Change: Sea Levels Threaten 180 US Cities by 2100
Rising Sea Could Sink Parts of 180 US Cities by 2100
study says
Feb 17, 2011 6:09 AM CST

Rising Sea Could Sink Parts of 180 US Cities by 2100

Miami, New Orleans among most endangered

(Newser) - By the end of the century, 180 coastal US cities could be partially submerged thanks to rising seas, finds a new study that looked at cities in the Lower 48 with populations of at least 50,000. The climbing sea poses a risk to, on average, 9% of the land...

Sea Levels to Rise 13 Feet by Year 3000
Sea Levels to Rise
13 Feet by Year 3000
study says
Jan 10, 2011 7:34 AM CST

Sea Levels to Rise 13 Feet by Year 3000

And that's actually the best case scenario

(Newser) - Best case scenario: Even if we give up using all fossil fuels this very second and manage to stop all carbon dioxide emissions, the West Antarctic ice sheet is expected to collapse by the year 3000, causing sea levels to rise by at least 13 feet. The catastrophic prediction is...

Tiny Creatures Suggest Ancient Antarctic Seaway

Which means ice sheet isn't as stable as thought

(Newser) - Antarctica was split into several pieces by the collapse of a major ice formation as recently as 125,000 years ago, new evidence suggests. Scientists have found similar Bryozoans—tiny marine animals that are immobile as adults—in the Ross and Weddell seas, which are separated by 1,500 miles...

18 Stories