Unsustainable water consumption contributes to sea level rise

Tidal measurements have revealed that the global sea level rose by 1.8mm per year between 1951 and 2000. This was partly caused by thermal expansion of the oceans, melting glaciers and icecaps, and loss of ice in Antarctica and Greenland, all of which were climate change-driven. However, the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report  estimated that these factors accounted for just 1.1mm per year of sea level rise, leaving 0.7mm unaccounted for. 

To address this gap in knowledge, the researchers used an integrated water resources assessment model to measure the effects of different types of terrestrial water storage on sea level change between 1951 and 2000.

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Source: http://bit.ly/TmEMGe