Ethicist Peter Singer told Q&A that climate change-related sea level rises are “estimated to cause something like 750 million refugees just moving away from that flooding”. Is that accurate?
Knowing where the ice comes from can help work out what it will do to sea levels.
Polar ice isn’t all the same - it can be divided roughly into “land ice” and “sea ice”. What matters most for sea levels is how much ice slides off the land and melts in the sea.
Damaged property in Sydney following recent wild weather.
AAP Image/David Moir
Wild seas have left beaches eroded and houses close to collapse.
While some councils wish to take a long-term view of what can reasonably be done in the face of sea-level rises, private property owners just want their homes protected.
AAP/Dan Peled
Many properties are at risk from rising sea levels, with owners and councils at odds over the costs of defending these. NSW law reform may lead to more forward-looking climate change adaptation.
Some parts of Antarctica’s Totten Glacier are more stable than others.
UWA/ICECAP
New mapping shows how Antarctica’s huge Totten Glacier has retreated far inland, raising sea levels by more than a metre. Rising temperatures could trigger it to do so again.
The Solomon Islands are low-lying and vulnerable to changes in sea level.
Javier Leon
Could sea levels really rise by several metres this century. Probably not, although this century’s greenhouse emissions could potentially set the stage for large rises in centuries to come.
The site of the hillfort of Vugala, northern Viti Levu island (Fiji). This was one of many hillforts in the area – home to a few hundred people according to reports from the 1840s – that were probably established around AD 1400 in response to conflict resulting from a food crisis that had come about as a result of an enduring fall in sea level.
Patrick Nunn
We’re going to have to adapt to climate change, but some of the options on the table could do more harm than good if they destroy the ecosystems that protect us.
Damage to the New Jersey coast caused by Hurricane Sandy.
EPA/MASTER SGT. MARK OLSEN / US AIR FORCE
Recent maps shows many Australian cities will be affected by sea level rise, but how should we plan for these dire forecasts.
In the aftermath of 2012’s deadly Hurricane Sandy, New York launched a US$20 billion plan to defend the city against future storms as well as rising sea levels.
David Shankbone/Flickr
Managing the impacts of rising seas for some communities is being made more difficult by the actions of governments, homeowners – and even some well-intentioned climate adaptation experts.
The low-lying islands of the Pacific such as Kiribati are vulnerable to sea level rise.
AAP Image/Elise Scott
If we burned all fossil fuels, the loss of ice in Antarctica would raise sea levels 160 to 200 feet, but even our current trajectory could lead to dramatic sea level rise.
More frequent disasters – such as Cyclone Pam which struck Vanuatu this year – will leave Pacific islands struggling to recover.
Edgar Su/Reuters
As Prime Minister Tony Abbott attends the Pacific Island Forum summit today, attention has again turned to how the low-lying islands will deal with global warming.
Sea level rise is one of the biggest worries of climate change. This image is from the Witness King Tides project, which aims to visualise sea level rise using large tides and storm surges.
Witness King Tides/Flickr
Sea level rise represents one of the most worrying aspects of global warming, potentially displacing millions of people along coasts, low river valleys, deltas and islands.