entists who warn that global warming is happening much faster than hitherto predicted.
Citing U.N. data on climate change, two senior German scientists say that previous predictions were far too cautious and optimistic.
Earlier estimates predicted a rise of 18 to 59 centimeters in sea levels this century, but that estimate is woefully understated, according to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Research on Global Warming Effects, and Jochem Marotzke, a leading meteorologist.
"We now have to expect that the sea level will rise by a meter this century," said Schellnhuber in Berlin.
He said it is "just barely possible" that world governments will be able to limit the rise in average global temperatures to just 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, if they all strictly adhere to severe limits in carbon dioxide emissions.
Those restrictions call for halving greenhouse emissions by 2050 and eliminating CO2 emissions entirely by the end of the century. But the German researchers said the resulting limited increase in temperature is predicated on strict adherence to those restrictions without exception, and even then there are many variables which could thwart the goals.
The new prognostications of higher sea levels, according to Schellnhuber, are based on studies of melting Himalaya glaciers and the shrinking Greenland ice cap.
"That is truly a global effect," he said. "Air pollution plays a massive role in the accelerating pace of climate change."
