Americas on alert for sea level rise

From a story by James Painter on BBC.com:

Climate change experts in North and South America are increasingly worried by the potentially devastating implications of higher estimates for possible sea level rises.

The Americas have until now been seen as less vulnerable than other parts of the world like low-lying Pacific islands, Vietnam or Bangladesh.

But the increase in the ranges for anticipated sea level rises presented at a meeting of scientists in Copenhagen in March has alarmed observers in the region.

Parts of the Caribbean, Mexico and Ecuador are seen as most at risk. New York City and southern parts of Florida are also thought to be particularly vulnerable.

The 2007 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report suggested that sea levels would rise by between 19cm (7.5 inches) and 59cm by the end of this century.

But several scientists at the Copenhagen meeting spoke of a rise of a metre or more, even if the world's greenhouse gas emissions were kept at a low level.

Melting of the polar ice sheets is one of the main drivers behind the new estimates.

"A rise of one metre will irreversibly change the geography of coastal areas in Latin America," Walter Vergara, the World Bank's lead engineer on climate change in the region, told the BBC.

"For example, a one-metre rise would flood an area in coastal Guyana where 70% of the population and 40% of agricultural land is located. That would imply a major reorganisation of the country's economy."

Mr Vergara and other experts are also concerned about the effect on the large coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rising sea levels coupled with severe storms could be devastating
"These new data on sea level rises are alarming," says Arnoldo Matus Kramer, a researcher on climate change adaptation at Oxford University.

"When combined with the exponential growth of urbanisation and tourism along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican Caribbean, it is extremely worrying."