Earth Could Ultimately See Sea Levels Rise 20 Feet.

Source: Reuters

Many beautiful seaside towns and properties could be swallowed up by a rapidly rising sea if current "global warming" related trends continue.

In theory, the Greenland and Antarctic ice shelves would continue to melt causing the sea to rise 20 feet or more.

WASHINGTON (Reuters)--Miami would be a memory, Bangkok a soggy shadow of its former self and the Maldive Islands would vanish if melting polar ice keeps fueling a faster-than-expected rise in sea levels, scientists reported on Thursday.

In an issue of the journal Science focusing on global warming, climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona reported that if global trends continue, Earth could ultimately see sea levels 20 feet higher than they are now.

By the end of this century, Earth would be at least 4 degrees F (2.3 degrees C) warmer than now, or about as hot as it was nearly 130,000 years ago.

Back then, significant portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melted, pushing the global sea levels to about 20 feet higher than current levels.

A similarly dramatic, and in some cases catastrophic, rise in ocean levels could happen by the year 2500, Overpeck said in a telephone interview, but he noted it could come sooner.

When are people going to do away with the economic argument on this subject and start taking it a bit more seriously? This isn't an issue that will just go away and will only get worse with time.

Tags: [global warming], [say good-bye to seaside towns], [Jonathan Overpeck], [University of Arizona], [Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets], [lobal sea levels to about 20 feet higher than current levels]