Water World: Slipping Toward Climate Catastrophe

The IPCC predicts that sea levels could rise by as much as 59 centimeters this century. Hansen’s paper argues that the slow melting of ice sheets the panel expects doesn’t fit the data. The geological record suggests that ice at the poles does not melt in a gradual and linear fashion, but flips suddenly from one state to another. When temperatures increased to 2-3 degrees Celsius above today’s level 3.5 million years ago, sea levels rose not by 59 cm but by 25 meters. The ice responded immediately to changes in temperature.

George Monbiot is a British journalist and author whose expertise is on climate change and other environmental issues.

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