14 DAY TRIAL // The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN organism that deals with estimating the future effects of global warming and climate change, as well as with ways of preventing them, said in a 2007 study that the global sea level would increase by 7 to 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) in less than 100 years. But a panel of scientists, who met in Copenhagen on Tuesday, have thoroughly dismissed these estimates, saying that they are too conservative. They warn that the actual levels might be, in fact, twice as high, which puts even more cities in danger of flooding, and even more millions of people on the very path of peril. The figures they have used for this conclusion are the latest available.
According to the new numbers, sea levels could rise by anything between 20 and 40 inches (51 to 102 centimeters), over the next century. “This means that if the emissions of greenhouse gases is not reduced quickly and substantially even the best-case scenario will hit low-lying coastal areas housing one-tenth of humans on the planet hard,” the organizers of the University of Copenhagen-hosted, three-day congress say in a statement.
“Unless we undertake urgent and significant mitigation actions, the climate could cross a threshold during the 21st century, committing the world to a sea level rise of meters,” Center for Australian Weather and Climate Research expert John Church warns. He also underlines the fact that the melting of the polar ice sheet and that of land- and sea-based glaciers are two of the largest factors influencing the current levels of water in the world's oceans.
“I am afraid that it is something that involves value judgment on the part of policy makers, and I am afraid that they shied away from it. It is time to take action,” Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC, has told at the conference. He was the receiver of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, along with former US vice-president, Al Gore.
The results of this conference are very important, as they will be presented to the UN meeting to be held in Copenhagen in December. The meeting's goal will be to adopt and vote a new international agreement meant to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which soon expires. However, the current crisis might result in some countries being less than willing to accept the sacrifices that need to be made in order for the planet to be saved.