Study finds sea levels are higher than we thought, placing millions more at risk [View all]
Source: pbs
Science Mar 4, 2026 7:48 PM EST
Climate change's rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said.
Researchers studied hundreds of scientific studies and hazard assessments, calculating that about 90% of them underestimated baseline coastal water heights by an average of 1 foot (30 centimeters), according to Wednesday's study in the journal Nature. It's a far more frequent problem in the Global South, the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and less so in Europe and along Atlantic coasts.
The cause is a mismatch between the way sea and land altitudes are measured, said study co-author Philip Minderhoud, a hydrogeology professor at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. And he attributed that to a "methodological blind spot" between the different ways those two things are measured.
..........................
Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/study-finds-sea-levels-are-higher-than-we-thought-placing-millions-more-at-risk
Study finds sea levels are higher than we thought, placing millions more at risk
— (@oceancalm.bsky.social) 2026-03-05T13:44:52.229Z
www.pbs.org/newshour/sci...
A man sits with his daughter as waves crash upon a barrier protecting the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea, as temperatures rise amid a heat wave, in the port city of Alexandria, Egypt Aug. 21, 2025. Alexandria is Egypt's second-largest city and one of the Middle Eastern cities most at risk from rising sea levels due to global warming. Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
= new reply since forum marked as read