ItĄ¯s Worse Than We Thought! Global Warming Will Cause Sea Levels To Rise 30Cm By 2100

With global warming, it's not just one problem we have to worry about, but a cascading set of consequences. One of those is how a warming climate melts sea ice, and will eventually have low-lying areas of the world drown. And it's happening faster than we expected.

Images courtesy: Reuters

In a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, researchers found that the oceans are warming at a faster rate than previously estimated. Thermal expansion is a process by which the warming oceans expand, and the scientists say it could raise sea levels by about 30 cm by the end of the century. This is on top of the rise in sea levels from melting ice and glaciers.

Also Read: Antarctica's Ice Is Melting Dangerously Fast, India Will Drown By 2 Metre Rise In Water By 2100

The thing is, oceans are such good heat sinks that it takes them decades to cool down. So, even if we miraculously manage to halt greenhouse gas emissions, they would still be expanding. On top of that, oceans absorb more than nine-tenths of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by these gases. And aside from rising sea levels, warmer oceans also mean more severe storms, hurricanes, and torrential rain.

Thanks to all of this, the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster than previously expected.

Zeke Hausfather, co-author of the paper, said, "While 2018 will be the fourth warmest year on record on the surface, it will most certainly be the warmest year on record in the oceans, as was 2017 and 2016 before that. The global warming signal is a lot easier to detect if it is changing in the oceans than on the surface."