A New Scientist article about a study by scientists at the institute of Arctic and Alpine Research of the University of Colorado, Boulder, has bad news for coastal areas around the world.
The team, led by Mark F. Meier, suggests in Science magazine that the latest International Panel on Climate Change projection of sea level rise in the 21st century by is too low by 10-25 centimeters because it leaves out the contributions of increasing glacier melt water.
To quote New Scientist, the IPCC report “predicted that sea levels worldwide will most probably rise between 21 and 47 cm by 2100, taking the averages of the six scenarios considered. Using the new figures on small glaciers, Meier calculates the rise to be between 27 and 97 cm.
“‘This is an appreciable adjustment,’ Meier says. He notes that more than 100 million people live within one meter of the current sea level.”
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