How much are sea levels expected to rise in the next century?
I have found all sorts of figures from 2 metres to 15! I know that there is uncertainty, I just wondered if anyone had a globally accepted figure.
I have found all sorts of figures from 2 metres to 15! I know that there is uncertainty, I just wondered if anyone had a globally accepted figure.
1 Answer
The best answers are often found in the IPCC reports, but even they (based on amalgamations of many studies) contain large uncertainties.
Explanation:
I must admit, I couldn’t see the sub-text when I picked up this question, and the simplistic answer I had formulated, you already know.
What does seem clear is that the climate and responses to it seems to be following the worst case scenarios predicted by the IPCC. Maybe unsurprising, as we appear to be having little success at de-carbonising the industrial economies (or the developing ones for that matter!)
I think the best answer is probably several meters, but there’s are so many interconnected effects and exponential feedback loops it is very hard to know. For reference here is the 5th IPCC report’s view:
