Study finds sea levels are higher than we thought, placing millions more at risk

[riversedge]

Source: pbs


Science Mar 4, 2026 7:48 PM EST

Climate change's rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said.


Researchers studied hundreds of scientific studies and hazard assessments, calculating that about 90% of them underestimated baseline coastal water heights by an average of 1 foot (30 centimeters), according to Wednesday's study in the journal Nature. It's a far more frequent problem in the Global South, the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and less so in Europe and along Atlantic coasts.

The cause is a mismatch between the way sea and land altitudes are measured, said study co-author Philip Minderhoud, a hydrogeology professor at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. And he attributed that to a "methodological blind spot" between the different ways those two things are measured.
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Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/study-finds-sea-levels-are-higher-than-we-thought-placing-millions-more-at-risk

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Study finds sea levels are higher than we thought, placing millions more at risk

www.pbs.org/newshour/sci...

— (@oceancalm.bsky.social) 2026-03-05T13:44:52.229Z

A man sits with his daughter as waves crash upon a barrier protecting the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea, as temperatures rise amid a heat wave, in the port city of Alexandria, Egypt Aug. 21, 2025. Alexandria is Egypt's second-largest city and one of the Middle Eastern cities most at risk from rising sea levels due to global warming. Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

[Mysterian]

1. New Orleans

We hardly knew ya.

[twodogsbarking]

2. Build a wall. Mexico will pay for it.

[Cheezoholic]

3. Just recently returned from a trip to visit family in S FL. It's obvious if you know what you're observing

Background, I have deep roots in FL going back 400 years. My cousin and I used to "play" in the Glades with my grandfather who had a small road side seafood stand. We would take our little john boat out into the glades for a couple days catching everything from various kinds of fish, shrimp crabs, urchins, you name it for him. I know that ecosystem. You can see the sea level rise in the mangroves themselves from when I was there back in the 60's through the 90's. There are numerous small barrier islands on the edge that are there but they are under a foot of water. The places we used to camp. We went diving, just as we used to, on a reef that was always a good spot for Stoners and warm water lobsters. They were still there but the, as he pointed out to me beforehand, the reef, and many around were 1 to 2 feet deeper on our gauges. Of course all of those things could be something else but we could just see it because we knew the area so well. Sure there's been big hurricanes come through but those have been coming through since the beginning. The ecosystem is built for it.

I still go down there a few times a year because its in my blood. I'm genetically tied to the Everglades. It feels natural to me when I'm there because part of my family's roots are tied to the area as much as the Mangroves. More than sea level rise they are being choked off by humans almost completely blocking off flow in the giant river that southern FL is. Without that massive amount of water slowly flowing south into the Glades it's slowly killing it. I cry every time I go back down there and see what we've done to that beautiful paradise. It very well may be gone or very nearly gone in 50 years. Half of it has disappeared in my lifetime.

Tek cyare Pay-hai-o-kee

[Wonder Why]

4. Ooh! Ooh! My mountain home will soon be oceanfront property, too.