Sea Level Rise Hard To Fathom

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 12, 2009 at 1:03 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Researchers say sea level rise could be even higher than official estimates two years ago. A UC-San Diego scientist says the previous estimates did not anticipate the pace of ice melt. KPBS Environnm

Researchers say sea level rise could be even higher than official estimates two years ago. A UC-San Diego scientist says the previous estimates did not anticipate the pace of ice melt. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast a rise in seal level of about two feet by 2100.

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But scientists at a climate change meeting in Denmark this week presented evidence that Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice faster than previously expected.

Predictions now say sea level could rise four feet or more by the end of the century.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography climate researcher Dan Cayan says the earlier prediction was conservative.

"Of course there's huge stockpiles of fresh water in Antarctica and Greenland, Cayan says. " We don't truly understand how the oceans are going to respond to climate warming and ice sheet melting."

Cayan says there's a lot of uncertainty in estimating how much sea level will rise.

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Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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