As a result, some 187 million people would find themselves in an extremely vulnerable position, as islands became uninhabitable, and farmland near water sources became swamped. In that scenario, the sea swallows about 1.79 million square kilometers, or 691,120 sq miles, of land-"an area more than three times the size of California," according to CNN. Instead of looking just at the 17 to 83 percent possibility range, the new expert judgment study (which solicited opinions from 22 ice sheet experts) looked at 5 to 95 percent of the possible outcomes if temperatures increase beyond 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).Īt that lower level, Greenland's melting ice sheet would be the primary issue, but if atmospheric warming rose to that 5 degree Celsius mark, then you would see East and West Antarctica contributing to the overflow. But that assessment, according to the BBC, excluded all but the most likely possibilities, meaning it presented a limited picture of our potential for destruction. That's a substantial change from 2013, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that, if humanity does not drastically reduce carbon emissions and instead just keeps doing what we're doing, we'll be facing a sea level rise of between about 1.7 and 3.2 feet. In that "worst-case scenario," according to CNN, hundreds of millions of people-including residents of New York City-would find themselves displaced as their homes sink underwater. A new study, released Monday, predicts a rise of 6.6 feet by 2100, if global temps warm by 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Turns out sea levels may be on track to rise by more than double the unsettling figure climate scientists previously projected, and all within a century.
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