A new study report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has revealed that the sea level is rising steadily, and it could reach 66 cm by the end of this century. Researchers examined 25 years of data before making this conclusion and made it clear that the sea level is not only rising steadily but will accelerate by about .08 mm each year.
The new acceleration rate could lead to almost half an inch rise in sea level per year. If governments all around the world fail to implement climate controlling measures to combat this acceleration, the sea levels will rise by just over 2 feet by the end of this century.
The new finding also confirms the previous projections put forward by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If this rise in sea level becomes a reality, it will cause significant problems in various coastal cities all around the world.
"This acceleration, driven mainly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise by 2100 as compared to projections that assume a constant rate — to more than 60 cm instead of about 30," said Steve Nerem, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado in Boulder and the lead author of the study, CNN reports.
According to the researchers who took part in the study, there are two ways by which climatic change is resulting in the rise of sea levels. The first one being the higher concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which results in the rise in temperature of water.
According to Nerem, this thermal expansion has contributed to about half of the seven centimeters of average global sea level rise in the past twenty-five years. The second cause of sea level rise is mainly due to the increasing flow of water due to fastly melting ice at the poles.
