CLIMATE HOUR – Sea level rise may be climate change’s biggest long-term impact. With just today’s 1.2 degree Celsius increase in global temperature, we can expect sea level rise of at least 1-2 meters (3.3-6.6 feet). And that’s our best case scenario. If countries continue to ignore the Paris Climate Accord and temperatures rise 2.5 degrees Celsius, we can expect the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. And that will raise sea level 10-12 meters (40 feet).



We’re seeing the affects now. Many of the major roads in the Florida Keys will be underwater this year. Cities like Miami, New Orleans, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, and Kolkata India, are going to be submerged by 2030. The countries most exposed to rising sea levels are the United States, followed by China, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. In our best case scenario, we can expect a trillion dollars a year in global flood damage. And a quarter-billion people looking for new homes. If we continue to ignore the Paris Climate Accord and warm the planet 2.5 degrees Celsius, we’ll displace over a billion people. That’s 13% of the world’s urban population looking for new homes, food and jobs.



The worst case scenario is that we throw caution to the wind. That we revert to full dependence on fossil fuels and melt ALL the world’s ice. That will raise sea levels 60-70 meters (200-233 feet). But at the point, sea level may be the least of our problems.







Join host, Bob Grove, and guests to discuss How Melting Ice Sheets Are Drowning The World. Guests include:




* Richard Alley, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences, Penn State



* Paul Bierman, Professor of Environmental Science, University of Vermont



* Andrea Dutton, Helen Jupnik Endowed Research Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison




To learn more, visit …




* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Alley



* https://www.PaulBierman.net



* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Dutton



* https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24




View other Climate Hour episodes at www.ClimateHour.net.