The chaos caused by Hurricane Sandy highlights at least one major reason to worry about climate change: rising sea levels. While storm surges are affected by a variety of factors, higher sea levels can magnify those surges and exacerbate flooding — not just during large storms like Sandy, but during smaller storms too. Sea-level rise, caused by melting glaciers and ice caps, is expected to accelerate in the decades ahead—an additional two to seven feet by 2100, some scientists project. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that it is “very likely” that extreme coastal flooding during storms will become far more common in the future as a result. Learn more »
