The water level in the oceans rises faster than the estimated figure.

It seems that the rapidly melting ice of Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating the overall process of raising the level of the oceans. This is evidenced by data transmitted by artificial satellites from orbit. If the current rate of growth of the water level continues, by the end of the century this figure will be 61 centimeters more.

The study, which made it possible to find out the speed of raising the water level, is based on a fairly large sample of data. Scientists took the information transmitted by satellites for 25 years and subjected it to detailed analysis using computer systems. As it turned out, it is warming and melting ice that play a major role in speeding up the process of “flooding”.

The problem is that previous estimates of the water level indicator were based on old results. And they were not very reliable, because they did not take into account a number of factors, including the acceleration of melting of eternal ice. According to experts, even small changes in the current water level in the seas and oceans will greatly affect the state of the environment and coastal cities. So, floods and soil erosion can become constant companions of such settlements.

"The fears of residents of such regions can become a reality by the year 2100 - in just a few decades," says Katie Serafin of the University of Oregon. Over the past 25 years, the level of water in the oceans has risen by 7.5 centimeters. About half of this figure is due to melting ice. Now the process of thawing is accelerating, and more and more ice is starting to turn into liquid water in Greenland and Antarctica.

Rising water, in turn, has the strongest influence on climate, which changes even faster. In nature, a huge number of factors are interdependent, and this can be traced by the example of warming and melting ice. It is worth noting that the level of water in the oceans remained approximately at the same level for about 3,000 years. In the 20th century, changes were initiated due to the industrial revolution, an increase in the amount of combustible minerals burned, and other factors.

It is known that rising water levels have a strong impact on regions like Miami and New Orleans in the United States. These areas are flooded in the first place. And if in the usual time they can cope with rising water, then hurricanes and typhoons put everything in its place, causing flooding of vast areas of land.

At the moment, Greenland has a three-fold effect on raising the water level than Antarctica. But the latter’s ice may melt faster than predicted by current climate change models used by scientists. “The Antarctic looks less stable than just a few years ago,” says climate scientist Robert Kopp.

In order to slow down the speed at which the temperature of the Earth rises, in Paris in 2016, a special agreement was signed between the countries, which was called "Paris". It regulates measures to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 2020. At the moment, it is this agreement - the main hope of mankind to stop warming until the point of no return is reached. Namely - warming causes melting of glaciers and permafrost. As a result, the volume of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere increases, the greenhouse effect increases, and warming is accelerated.

The purpose of this agreement is to keep the growth of the average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. In order to do this, it is necessary to quickly reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. True, this may not be enough to stop the Earth warming up. Some climatologists believe that even now humanity is at the point of no return, when it is necessary not only to reduce emissions, but also to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Otherwise, the point of no return will indeed be passed and it will be impossible to do something.

In order to do this, you need to take the following actions: to restore forests, to work the soil with special methods, to remove carbon dioxide from atmospheric air and so on. But in order to reduce the restriction within about 2 degrees, it is necessary to learn to remove about 11 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the year 2050 to compensate emissions. But this is either difficult or not possible. In order to achieve serious results, scientists propose to use the entire arsenal of technologies that humanity has. Otherwise it may be late.

PNAS , 2018. DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1717312115