On March 2, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in our favor -- a Pyrrhic victory considering all of the money and resources wasted that could have been invested, for example, in measures to protect Virginia's coastline from the damaging effects of the sea level rise it is already seeing.
The contribution from Alaska's glaciers to the worldwide sea level rise "is even more that what we had expected, " he added.
If global temperature rises by about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the next century, scientists estimate the sea level will rise seven to 15 inches.
If parts of these were to melt, the sea level would rise far more rapidly than in the past (when much of the rise has been because water expands as it warms).
The team has calculated that Alaskan glaciers are responsible for at least 9% of the global sea-level rise during the past century, and Alaska's glaciers raise the level of Earth's oceans by more than one-tenth of a millimetre each year.
Such an increase amounts to 0.16 inches per year, but the eventual impact could mean that a small storm could "do the same damage that Sandy did, " said Peter Howd, co-author of a 2012 U.S. Geological Survey report that found the rate of sea level rise had increased in the northeast.
Within the plot of the play at least, in one case, the land appeared to be falling rather than the sea-level rising, and in another, both land and sea were rising together, thus disguising the reality of sea-level rise, but within the plot, a university department would lose a lucrative grant if they told the truth.
In a non-linear problem, the most relevant number for projecting sea level rise is the doubling time for the rate of mass loss.
Scene Four: Al is pestering us again about how we have to tighten our belts or else the global sea level will rise dramatically and turn our coastal cities into Waterworld.
This means that we can expect more than the one-meter sea level rise projected for 2100, a fact that the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet, as well as strong indications that the western part of the Antarctic ice sheet is also melting, strongly support.
If spending on defences remains limited, and the scenarios for sea-level rise through climate change prove correct, conservation of the marshes may acquire more urgency.
However, the scientists stressed that sea level rise in line with their projections could still make some islands in the Pacific uninhabitable.
BBC: 'Best estimate' for impact of melting ice on sea level rise
The researchers also included projections for sea level rise in Europe that includes the effects of thermal expansion, ice melt and storm surges.
BBC: 'Best estimate' for impact of melting ice on sea level rise
Earlier this month, the City of Boston recently released a report showing potential flood regions in the city that have expanded as a result of sea level rise over the next few decades due to climate change.
Moreover, the risks are rising inexorably: sea level rise is happening at an accelerated rate along the East Coast.
And even then the sea level will continue to rise, perhaps for millennia.
Nils-Axel Morner, former head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics Department at Stockholm University, documented a dramatic deceleration of sea level rise during the past 40 years.
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Since more than 180 million people around the world could be displaced by higher sea levels, "Credible projections of sea-level rise in the 21st century are essential for devising adaptation or mitigation measures, " wrote NASA's Josh Willis and John Church, of the Tasmania-based Center for Australian Weather Research.
Leaders of small island states, which are on the front lines of sea-level rise, were less enthusiastic.
Caribbean faces unique challenges in coping with the climate change, sea-level rise, natural disasters, alleviation of poverty and sustainable development.
UNESCO: All Events | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Whatever the dispute about the rates and amounts of sea level rise, it is evident that coastal populations and ecosystems will need to adapt to these changes.
Yet that is just what is happening in Greenland, whose relatively warm and wet sheet is on course to melt completely, bringing the prospect of a sea-level rise of perhaps seven metres.
What about the dreaded rise of sea level?
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The extra 0.3 millimeters of fictitious sea level rise will add up to 1.2 inches over the course of the 21st century.
Hansen suggested that a 10-year doubling time was plausible, pointing out that such a doubling time from a base of 1 mm per year ice sheet contribution to sea level in the decade 2005-2015 would lead to a cumulative 5-metre sea-level rise by 2095.
Sea level rise, the loss of biodiversity, acidification and pollution are only a few dangers threatening our seas and coasts.
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) computer models project approximately 15 inches of sea level rise during the 21st century.
By feeding into his model both some recent science on the increased risks of dramatic climate change, and the possibility of such catastrophes as a rise in sea level big enough to flood London and New York, he calculates that the range of possible outcomes lies somewhere between 5% and 20% of global output over the next century or two.
That the Valley has joined the Maldives (with somewhat less urgency) on the list of those threatened by potential sea level rise is actually a good thing.
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But sea level rise, largely the result of manmade climate change, may have effects that go far beyond catastrophic flooding: a new paper shows how higher water may lead to increased volcanic activity.
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