The world’s oceans have risen to their highest level in 6,000 years due to melting glaciers and ice sheets, according to a paper last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“There’s something going on today that wasn’t going on before,” lead author Kurt Lambeck told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation. “As the Earth’s temperature warms, so do the seas,” USA Today explains. “Heat-trapping greenhouse gases cause more land ice (glaciers and ice sheets) to melt, and water to expand.”
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On the Climate Progress blog, Ari Phillips reports that “the scientists’ reconstruction found no evidence that sea levels fluctuated by more than about eight inches during the relatively stable period that lasted between 6,000 and about 150 years ago. Then, since the onset of the industrial revolution, sea levels have already risen by about that same amount.”
