Effects of Global Warming on Sea Levels
Antarctica's ice sheets are now losing 147 gigatons of ice each year, mainly from the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica. The system is no longer in balance, and Antarctica's ice is flowing more quickly into the ocean than before.
When ice shelves collapse, they don't immediately affect sea-level rise much, since their ice was already floating in the water anyway. But the disintegration of these shelves allows the ice behind them to flow more rapidly into the sea — and that does have the potential to significantly speed up sea-level rise.
the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). However, the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years.
persistently higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting of glaciers and ice caps as well as diminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs.
As seawater reaches farther inland, it can cause destructive erosion, flooding of wetlands, contamination of aquifers and agricultural soils, and lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants.
"Even if global warming emissions were to drop to zero by 2016, sea level will continue to rise in the coming decades as oceans and land ice adjust to the changes we have already made to the atmosphere."