Oceans To Rise One Meter By 2100 - Arctic Expert

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"Speaking at the start of a four-day scientific conference in Reykjavik, Corell said global warming was melting the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic glaciers from Alaska to Norway quicker than previously thought. "Greenland will play a much bigger role in sea level rise than anticipated," said Corell, a scientist at the American Meteorological Society.

He said a 2001 U.N. report forecast world ocean levels would rise by 20-90 cms by 2100. He said some U.N. forecasts assumed melting Greenland ice would cause just 4 mm of the rise. "We'll be at the top of the range, about a meter," he said. The ACIA report says that Greenland's melt alone could add 10 cms to global sea levels by 2100. Melting of other Arctic glaciers would also contribute.

About 17 million people in Bangladesh live less than one meter above sea level. Pacific islands like Tuvalu could be swamped and much of Florida south of Miami would be inundated by a one meter rise. Much of the rise projected by U.N. surveys in the years to 2100 is because water in the oceans expands as it warms, and so is not directly connected to melting ice. At the other end of the globe from the Arctic, the thicker Antarctic ice is expected to stay more stable, like a deep freeze.

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The eight Arctic governments are due to meet in Iceland on Nov. 24 to decide what to do. Diplomats say they are deadlocked, with Washington the most strongly opposed to radical action. "There are mixed signals in the United States," Corell said of Washington's attitude toward tackling global warming. But "I think that there is a shift going on." He said that some Republican senators, for instance, had asked him for personal briefings about the climate report."

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&nci...