Sea Level and Mass Extinction

The Daily Galaxy website, on June 19th 2008, has an article that looks at the possibility that some past extinctions were down to rising sea levels and how climate change is bring about another one. It says,

Peters' research, which recently appeared in the journal Nature, provides an intriguing perspective on one of nature’s most pervasive mysteries. Most of us correlate Earth's periodic mass extinctions with dramatic and sudden events like a blazing asteroid or a sky-blackening super volcano—the kind of things that have been linked to the demise of the dinosaurs. While dramatic events like these do appear to have played major roles in some extinction periods, they certainly haven’t accounted for all of them. Peters says that is where sea level comes into play. His research provides evidence that convincingly fills in the gaps.

But does any of this apply to us today, and if so, how? National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Manager Rich Lane believes it does. "This breakthrough speaks loudly to the future impending modern shelf extinction due to climate change on Earth," says Lane.

Lane is referring to the fact that many climate experts fear a warming climate will cause sea levels to rise with devastating consequences. The Daily Galaxy asked Peters how climate affects sea levels.

“In my opinion, a much bigger concern with respect to global warming-induced sea level rise is the human impact. A very large fraction of the world's population and infrastructure is within a few meters of sea level. Thus, even a small rise is going to wreak almost unimaginable havoc,” Peters told The Daily Galaxy. “In fact, I think the impending sea level rise is the most serious threat posed by global warming. The biosphere is well conditioned to deal with the magnitude of sea level rise that we are likely to induce. We, as a society, are not.”

So it looks like we are very close to another mass extinction by rising sea levels brought on by global warming. Is it time to run to higher ground?