Splash Down!

Harold Wanless (University of Miami) provides a worrying scenario around likely rises in sea levels (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2021/apr/13/sea-level-rise-climate-emergency-harold-wanless). Wanless points out that people rarely appreciate that more than 90% of global warming is transferred to the seas. Here, it heats up the upper 2000 feet of water. This rapidly melts ice near both poles, inevitably increasing sea levels. Wanless notes estimates that sea levels will be 8 feet higher by 2100. That sounded bad but he now thinks we will be lucky, if the rise is so 'modest'. Wanless also suggests there is no guarantee the rises (which are accelerating), will be, in any sense, gradual and graded. Even 8 feet, would be incredibly problematic for human populations (most live near the coast) and food production. Wanless maintains we must a) stop releasing carbon dioxide, by rapidly turning to renewable energy sources and b) extract (and safely store?) the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and the oceans. He believes we have to do both, to stand any chance of avoiding catastrophic rises in sea levels.