New research underway indicates that at least three feet of global sea level rise is near certain, NASA scientists warned Wednesday.
That’s the higher range of the 1 to 3 feet level of rise the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave in its 2013 assessment.
Sea levels have already risen 3 inches on average since 1992, with some areas experiencing as much as a 9-inch rise.
“Given what we know now about how the ocean expands as it warms and how ice sheets and glaciers are adding water to the seas, it’s pretty certain we are locked into at least 3 feet of sea level rise, and probably more,” said Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado,