Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
A new study in Nature: Geoscience suggests that current estimates of sea-level rise in response to global warming are too low. Rohling et al. utilize a "combination of a continuous high-resolution sea-level record, based on the stable oxygen isotopes of planktonic foraminifera from the central Red Sea and age constraints from coral data to estimate rates of sea-level change" during the last ice age (124-119 kyr). Their findings indicate in a climate 2 degrees C warmer than the present the oceans were 4-6m higher than the present. Overall, sea-level increased by 1.6m per century. An important factor contributing to this rise was the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
A 1.6 m global sea-level rise per century would correspond to disappearance of an ice sheet the size of Greenland in roughly four centuries (modelling suggests 1,000 years or more).
The research supports the often criticized, unconventionally high, estimates of 0.5-1.5m sea level rise predicted by AD 2100. The good news? More deep sea!
Environment
Comments
So, would it be wrong to start buying up "cheap" land now in anticipation of it's ocean-front value in the future?
I mean, someone (or more) must be doing this already, right?
Posted by: Jim Lemire | December 18, 2007 9:58 AM
Good question. With all the get quick rich schemes for banking on future climate change, I am surprised I haven't seen anything like this.
Posted by: CR McClain | December 18, 2007 10:49 AM
Way to look on the bright side!
Wouldn't the simplest way to predict sea level change be to measure the amount of ice, account for the voume change when it turns to water and then add that much to the oceans? I guess that's not so simple as it seems,actually.
Posted by: Homie Bear | December 18, 2007 10:51 AM
The research supports the often criticized, unconventionally high, estimates of 0.5-1.5m sea level rise predicted by AD 2100. The good news? More deep sea!
I lived in the Florida Keys for a year and Hawaii for 6 months so I know about the beauty of the deep sea. But I have chosen Tennessee to live out the rest of the years on outpost Earth, ( seems high enough doesn't it)? Buying a home in the dessert only to be able to catch fish from the porch later on might be too much of a strain on my heart! LOL!
Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | December 20, 2007 2:15 PM