Godzilla, the Japanese term for rising sea levels, is threatening to destroy port cities around the world.
With 2010 already the warmest year on record the IPCC is warning that the suprising acceleration in warming may bring rising sea levels much higher than previously projected.
The Ice caps are melting. Greenland is calving off manhatten sized sections of Glacier. The Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica has floated free from the underwater obstructions which had held it in place for millenia.
Imagine that over the next 70 or 80 years, a giant port city — say, Tokyo — found itself engulfed by sea levels rising as much as 4.5m or more.
Sea level rise could bust IPCC estimate
Researchers, including John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, presented evidence that Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice fast, contributing to the annual sea-level rise. Recent data shows that waters have been rising by 3 millimetres a year since 1993.
Church says this is above any of the rates forecast by the IPCC models. By 2100, sea levels could be 1 metre or more above current levels, he says. And it looks increasingly unlikely that the rise will be much less than 50 centimetres.
In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast a rise of 18 cm to 59 cm by 2100. But the numbers came with a heavy caveat that often went unnoticed by the popular press.
Rising Sea Levels for the Gulf Coast
A new University of Central Florida study will examine how rising sea level could harm estuaries and coastal communities along the Florida Panhandle and Alabama and Mississippi coasts.
Scientists warn Congress that melting Greenland icesheet could lead to sea level rises of seven metres
NOAA says Global Warming is undeniable and warns of rising sea levels
In Delaware Bay a projected sea level rise of 1.5 feet within the next few decades could bring an end to the drinking water supply of 15 Million people living on the east coast around
In California the latest coastal mapping has added thousands of homes to flood plains requiring owners to pay from $500 to $1500 a year for flood insurance.
If the ice cap in Antarctica continues to melt at its current rate,
Chennai, India will be wiped off the face of the earth in 80 years
Fire, Flood, Famine, Plague, Pestilence
We are tinkering with our planets basic life support system
"Over the past month, global grain exports have been hit by two calamities that have been exacerbated by worries over global warming, particularly affecting the world's rice crop. For the better part of a decade, the world's food scientists have been warning against what they have called an Event – a confluence of natural calamities that drive the price of staples – particularly grains – past the point where hundreds of poor will no longer be able to eat."