A group of leading climate scientists warned on Tuesday that global warming will produce a catastrophic rise in planetary sea levels within decades — not centuries, as previously thought.
The paper warns that if there are no significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions across the world soon, the global sea level would likely rise “several meters over a timescale of 50 to 150 years.”
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The research, published in the journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, has 19 authors, including the prominent scientist Dr. James Hansen, who is widely acknowledged as being one of the first to raise concerns about human-caused global warming.
“Consequences [of climate change] include sea level rise of several meters, which we estimate would occur this century or at latest next century, if fossil fuel emissions continue at a high level,” Hansen said. “That would mean loss of all coastal cities, most of the world’s large cities and all their history.”
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The authors also highlight several other threats they believe we’ll face this century, including a halting of major ocean circulatory currents, and an outbreak of super storms.
The paper builds on research released last year before the study was peer reviewed, a process that gives other scientists an opportunity to critique the work.
This news comes less than a month after researchers published a separate article in the journal Nature Climate Change saying humans need to cut their future greenhouse gas emissions roughly in half.
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