An iceberg off Ammassalik island, Greenland.

Authors Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young have written a book called “The Rising Sea” that forecasts much higher sea levels than previously suggested. Dr. Pilkey is Professor emeritus at Duke University in the USA and Dr. Young is Professor of geosciences at Western Carolina University. Through their combined expertise, they point out, for instance, that although the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated a two-foot rise by the end of the century, this did not include ice melt from Greenland or the Antarctic.

(On Shishmaref Island in Alaska, homes are being washed into the sea. In the South Pacific, small island nations face annihilation by encroaching waters. In coastal Louisiana, an area the size of a football field disappears every day. For these communities, sea level rise isn’t a distant, abstract fear: it’s happening now and it’s threatening their way of life.)

Moreover, in the two years since the IPCC report was released, increasing evidence points to accelerating melt in both those locations, with many climate scientists now saying that the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will be one of the main drivers of sea level rise during this century.

Drs. Pilkey and Young go on to state that the ramifications of rising oceans are enormous: Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, along with the creation of millions of environmental refugees.

Drs. Pilkey and Young, our thanks for this updated forecast, despite its dire implications. May governments realize the gravity of lobal warming and act now to save our planet.

Where are we going with this kind of rising levels? Even if we dig a hole… Nowadays, they have something like the tube ready for you, like a room, and then you can put it in the earth to protect yourself from climate change, from gases and all that, but how can we protect ourselves in this case when the sea level rises 70 meters and buries everything in its wake? And no more food, no more agriculture, nothing! No animals even to eat. Even if we want to eat meat, there will be nothing left for us. We have to change to a vegan diet, animal-free diet. Animal industry must be out. That’s it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/15/sea-level-climate-change
http://islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?prod_id=1760