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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Sep 30, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Sea level rise 'unstoppable' <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->OXFORD (England) - A RISE of at least two metres in the world's sea levels is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University on Tuesday.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>STORM
DELEGATES from about 190 nations are meeting in Bangkok to try to speed up UN-led negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a tougher climate pact.
Speakers in Oxford used history to back up their arguments on rising seas. Three million years ago the planet was 2-3 degrees warmer and the sea 25-35 metres higher, and 122,000 years ago 2 degrees warmer and 10 metres higher, they said.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable,' said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany's Potsdam Institute and a widely recognised sea level expert.
'There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions.' Dr Rahmstorf said the best outcome was that after temperatures stabilised, sea levels would only rise at a steady rate 'for centuries to come", and not accelerate.
Most scientists expect at least 2 degrees Celsius warming as a result of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and probably more. The world warmed 0.7-0.8 degrees last century.
Dr Rahmstorf estimated that if the world limited warming to 1.5 degrees then it would still see two metres sea level rise over centuries, which would see some island nations disappear.
His best guess was a one metre rise this century, assuming three degrees warming, and up to five metres over the next 300 years.
'There is nothing we can do to stop this unless we manage to cool the planet. That would require extracting the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There is no way of doing this on the sufficient scale known today,' he said.
Scientists say that ice melt acquires a momentum of its own - for example warming the air as less ice reflects less heat, warming the local area.
'Once the ice is on the move, it's like a tipping point which reinforces itself,' said Wageningen University's Pier Vellinga, citing various research.
'Even if you reduce all the emissions in the world once this has started it may be unstoppable. I conclude that beyond 2 degrees global average temperature rise the probability of the Greenland ice sheet disintegrating is 50 per cent or more.' '(That) will result in about 7 metres sea level rise, and the time frame is about 300-1,000 years.' -- REUTERS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Sea level rise 'unstoppable' <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->OXFORD (England) - A RISE of at least two metres in the world's sea levels is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University on Tuesday.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>STORM
DELEGATES from about 190 nations are meeting in Bangkok to try to speed up UN-led negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a tougher climate pact.
Speakers in Oxford used history to back up their arguments on rising seas. Three million years ago the planet was 2-3 degrees warmer and the sea 25-35 metres higher, and 122,000 years ago 2 degrees warmer and 10 metres higher, they said.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable,' said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany's Potsdam Institute and a widely recognised sea level expert.
'There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions.' Dr Rahmstorf said the best outcome was that after temperatures stabilised, sea levels would only rise at a steady rate 'for centuries to come", and not accelerate.
Most scientists expect at least 2 degrees Celsius warming as a result of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and probably more. The world warmed 0.7-0.8 degrees last century.
Dr Rahmstorf estimated that if the world limited warming to 1.5 degrees then it would still see two metres sea level rise over centuries, which would see some island nations disappear.
His best guess was a one metre rise this century, assuming three degrees warming, and up to five metres over the next 300 years.
'There is nothing we can do to stop this unless we manage to cool the planet. That would require extracting the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There is no way of doing this on the sufficient scale known today,' he said.
Scientists say that ice melt acquires a momentum of its own - for example warming the air as less ice reflects less heat, warming the local area.
'Once the ice is on the move, it's like a tipping point which reinforces itself,' said Wageningen University's Pier Vellinga, citing various research.
'Even if you reduce all the emissions in the world once this has started it may be unstoppable. I conclude that beyond 2 degrees global average temperature rise the probability of the Greenland ice sheet disintegrating is 50 per cent or more.' '(That) will result in about 7 metres sea level rise, and the time frame is about 300-1,000 years.' -- REUTERS
