Between the dead birds, mysterious falling goo, and the armed Zombie enthusiasts, 2012 and the destruction of all mankind seems right around the corner. So here's your weekly reminder that the Apocalypse isn't a patient mistress: according to a new report on sea level changes, New York is projected to experience a much greater sea level increase than other parts of the world.
Researchers who have been attempting to model all the factors leading to regional variations in sea level changes presented their projections at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, where they delivered the bad news about NY: "Everybody will still have the impact, and in many places they will get the average rise. But places like New York are going to have a larger contribution than the average - 20 percent more in this case - and Reykjavik will be better off," said Roderik van der Wal from the University of Utrecht. He noted that of the 13 regions where the team made specific projections, New York saw the biggest increase from the global average.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in 2007 that sea levels would rise by at least one foot by the year 2100, and the state released a report on rising sea levels at the start of the year in which they noted that New York Harbor is expected to rise 2 to 5 inches within the next 20 years alone. But our fate may be intrinsically tied into Antarctica's, because of gravitational pull: they project that areas closer to melting ice sheets will experience a smaller sea level rise than those further away. "So if the Greenland sheet melts more, that's better for New York; but if Antarctica melts, that's worse for New York - and it's equally true for northwestern Europe," van der Wal told BBC News. We never thought we'd turn out backs on the descendants of Erik The Red, but here's hoping that Greenland melts before Antarctica!
