London beachfront property if sea level rises 25 meters

Global warming may rear its head quicker then thought as a new study shows that sea levels may rise up to 25 metres instead of the original figure of seven metres that was estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Part of the reason for the discrepancies in figures according to Professor Eelco Rohling who works at the Southampton National Oceanography Centre is because temperatures in the environment due to CO2 have been documented well providing for a clear analysis while changed in sea level has not been.

Rohling published the study that asserts the sea level may rise by 25 metres in Nature Geoscience along with a new record of sea level change over the past 520,000 years which he collected through a careful study of the Red Sea bottom.

The study closely looked at the shells of tiny ocean organisms in the Red Sea many of which have been present for millions of years. Careful study of the shells oxygen chemistry can reveal the approximate sea level changes of the Red Sea.

Rohling stated that the data collected shows the same relation between CO2 and temperature as CO2 and sea level which means changes in temperature can be used to determine changes in sea levels as well.

It has already been estimated that Antarctic temperatures will reach 16C in the next thousand years which means that when properly calculated, the sea level would have to rise 25 metres in the same time period.

While the change in sea level would happen over the next thousand years, according to researchers who worked on the project the disconcerting fact is that even if the world stopped emitting CO2 today it would not be enough to change the coming reality. That increase in sea levels would put huge areas of the UK under water.