Sea Levels Rising

Sea levels have risen faster than thought due to climate changes, says Nasa.

10:02 01 September 2015

Nasa has found that sea levels have risen 8cm in the past 20 years because of climate change. It said that it was due to warmer ocean water and the melting of polar ice caps making low lying parts of the world particularly vulnerable.

 

Nasa scientist Tom Wagner said: “People need to understand that the planet is not only changing, it’s changed.

 

“If you’re going to put in major infrastructure like a water treatment plant or a power plant in a coastal zone ... we have data you can now use to estimate what the impacts are going to be in the next 100 years.”

 

Dr Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California Irvine, said: “Significant changes are taking place today on ice sheets. It would take centuries to reverse the trend of ice retreat.”

 

The report was released just a month after the prime minister of Tuvalu flew to Brussels to appeal to EU leaders to stop it from “disappearing off the face of the Earth.” Tuvalu is currently below sea level and is home to just 10,000 people.