However, a study published this year in the journal Science attempts to set an upper limit on sea level rise by 2100. The IPCC did not include changes in ice flow because these types of changes are not very well understood. The IPCC acknowledged the limitations of their projections and said that sea level rise could be higher if the ice sheets break down more rapidly. But the estimates do not account for any changes in the speed of the weakened ice that flows from the glaciers into the ocean-either from melting ice or iceberg break-off, which may happen in the future. The panel also factored in the ice melting from Greenland and Antarctica based on how much these bodies have melted in recent years-from 1993 to 2003. The IPCC based this prediction primarily on how much the ocean waters are expected to warm and expand. In 2007, the International Panel on Climate Change, an organization composed of scientists and policy makers around the world who monitor human-caused climate change, estimated that sea levels would rise 0.18 to 0.6 meters (0.59 to 2.0 feet) over the next 100 years. Scientists say that the two main causes of rising sea levels are water expanding as it warms, known as thermal expansion, and melting land-based ice, such as ice from Antarctica and Greenland. His narration tells the audience that, due to global warming, melting ice could release enough water to cause at 20-foot rise in sea level “in the near future.”Īlthough he doesn’t give a clear time frame for the 20-foot sea level rise, Gore’s statement seems to contradict several recent reports, including one published in 2008, that predict much smaller rises during this century. As Greenland’s ice sheets collapse, Gore predicts that our shores will be flooded and sea-bordering cities will sink beneath the water leaving millions of people homeless. Some of the most memorable images from Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, are the graphics that show how rising ocean levels will dramatically alter our planet’s coastlines.
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