Alarming prediction of ocean level rise

Kate Sheppard, Environment and Energy editor  for Huffington Post, reports that:

"One of the nation's most recognizable names in climate science, Dr. James Hansen, released a new paper this week warning that even 2 degrees Celsius of global warming may be 'highly dangerous' for humanity.

"The paper, which will be published online in the European Geosciences Union journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion later this week, projects sea levels rising as much as 10 feet in the next 50 years."

Hansen and 16 co-authors warned that "current greenhouse-gas reduction goals are not strong enough. . . ."

"We conclude that continued high emissions will make multi-meter sea level rise practically unavoidable and likely to occur this century. . . .  Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea level rise could be devastating."

Hansen is a former director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and now a professor at Columbia University.   He is thought by some to be an alarmist -- but he is "also right," according to Eric Holthaus, a writer for Slate.

Others have been less convinced, according to Sheppared.   Kevin Ternberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research called it "provocative and intriguing but rife with speculation and 'what if' scenarios."

My concern is that, if we ignore those who may be alarmists -- but who may also be right -- that it will be too late to save our planet and our civilization. . . .  and life, as we know it.

Ralph