“The best science today says it is going to happen and that we’re not ready for it,” a climate scientist told BuzzFeed News. “That, unfortunately, is bad news.”
An iceberg floats in Disko Bay, near Ilulissat, Greenland, on July 24, 2015.
NASA / Saskia Madlener
Steve Nerem, a geophysicist at NASA and the University of Colorado, Boulder, said the world is all but certain to see a three foot sea level rise due to the concentration of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.
Nerem told BuzzFeed News Thursday even if global emissions stopped immediately, the effects of CO2 already in the atmosphere would lead to rising sea levels, in a sort of "inertia" effect. The ocean rise could hit three feet by 2100 or later, Nerem said.
"Eventually we're going to get to 3 feet," he added. "Is that going to happen in 2100 or 2200, or somewhere in between? It really depends on what we do with our CO2."
Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and president of the Pacific Institute, was not a member of NASA's research team but praised the conclusions.
"The best science today says it is going to happen and that we're not ready for it," Gleick said. "That, unfortunately, is bad news."
Venice, Italy, sits just above the water, making it particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Andreas Solaro / AFP / Getty Images
Since 1900, global sea levels have risen about 7 inches, Nerem said, and the rate of rising has increased over the last two decades, with NASA documenting a nearly 3 inch change since 1992. The geophysicist said multiple factors contributed to the rising, but the largest one was human impact on the environment.
"There can be short term variations due to, for example, El Niños," Nerem said. "But over long time scales, like the last 100 years, almost all the rise we see is due to our influence, in my opinion."
But that rise hasn't been experienced equally; some parts of the world have seen as much as a 9-inch rise, while other areas, such as California, have actually seen sea levels fall in recent years. However, in California's case NASA anticipates accelerated sea level rising over the next decade.
The NASA video below visualizes worldwide changes in sea level since 1992, with warm colors indicating higher waters and cool colors indicating the opposite.
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