r/Futurology • u/carbonbrief • 4d ago

Environment Global warming is ‘exposing’ new coastlines and islands as Arctic glaciers shrink

https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-warming-is-exposing-new-coastlines-and-islands-as-arctic-glaciers-shrink/
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u/dafones 4d ago

Can anyone tell me: are global water levels net rising, but locally the retreat of these glaciers are exposing new coastlines, rather than submerging them?

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u/Yebi 4d ago

Sea level rise is happening very quickly on a geological scale, but on a human scale, in terms of visual impact over 20 years, it can pretty much be rounded down to zero. A centimeter or two is not going to change how the coastline looks.

Bit of an unrelated tangent, but I think in general sea level rise is a bit of a red herring, and is taking up far too much spotlight in normie discussions of climate change. Other sequelae of climate change will fuck us up long before cities sink.

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u/Raetekusu 4d ago

The biggest thing that will fuck us up in our lifetimes is the degradation of the gulf stream, and that's already happening.