The subject of the oceans really can illustrate the reality that
we are all in this Earth experience together, really can show
the fallacy of the "all ___ is local" mantra, because what one
nation does environmentally will have an effect on the other
nations within the global community. Scientific papers are
constantly being released which in effect say that "it is worse
than we thought last time". One crisp example concerns the
Greenland ice sheet: Satellite observations and a state-of-the
art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that
the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate,
reports a new study in Science.(Science Daily, emphasis added).
A 21 foot (7 meter) rise in ocean level would certainly have the
effect of destroying civilization as we know it. The Greenland
ice sheet contains enough water to cause a global sea level rise
of seven metres [about 21 feet]. Without [some lucky] moderating
effects, post-1996 Greenland mass loss would have been double
the amount of m