Unprecedented sea-level rise over 20th century pins down future
of rising oceans Sea-level rises from global warming remain one
of the big unknowns in the jostling crowd of climate threats. We
know that warming water expands - and so coastal communities
will be threatened, as the sea swells in response to rising
temperatures. But what about the melting of the land-based ice-
sheets of Greenland and Antarctica? And the disappearing
mountain glaciers of the Rockies and the Andes? How will a
warming world spill these frozen waters into the sea, and so
back onto our low-lying cities? Those questions are something
that climate scientists try to model, but which they still find
difficult to predict. One way to help knock down that
uncertainty is to turn to past records of sea-level
fluctuations, to see if they can point to the future. Tie these
records tightly enough to detailed temperature records, and
scientists may get a better grasp on what their models should be
showing. That's what a research team, including P