Climate Experts Release Latest Science on Sea Level Rise Projections

Apr 19, 2017 at 7:00pm

The report also emphasizes the importance of preparing for extreme but uncertain scenarios involving the rapid loss of the Antarctic ice sheet, which would have an enormous impact on coastal regions. An estimated 75 percent of California's population lives in coastal counties. Sea-level rise, already underway, threatens hundreds of miles of roads and railways, harbors, airports, power plants, wastewater treatment plants, coastal wetlands, beaches, dunes, bluffs, and thousands of businesses and homes.

The new science report was requested by the California Ocean Protection Council and the California Natural Resources Agency, in collaboration with the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, the California Energy Commission, and the California Ocean Science Trust. Expertise on the scientific team includes risk assessment, climatic change, ice sheet behavior, and statistical modeling.

The science report will be presented on April 26 at a meeting in Sacramento of the Ocean Protection Council. The report provides the scientific basis for updating statewide policy, which guides state and local decisions along California shorelines.