Sea levels have been rising faster since 1990 than scientists thought, according to researchers at Harvard and Rutgers universities.
“What this paper shows is that the sea-level acceleration over the past century has been greater than had been estimated by others,” says lead writer Eric Morrow. “It’s a larger problem than we initially thought.”
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“The research can be confusing on its face,” Climate Progress explains. “At first glance, it shows that scientists have actually been overstating the rate of sea level rise for the first 90 years of the 20th century.”
But if that’s right, it means faster change was needed to reach today’s sea levels. “We used to think the rate of acceleration of sea level rise in the last 25 years was only a little worse compared to the past,” Atkin writes. “Now that we know the rate used to be much slower, we know that it’s much worse.”
