Sea levels are rising, threatening coastal areas, including cities, around the world. Due to climate change, the global ocean has already risen by 21-24 centimeters (about 8-9.5 inches) since 1880, and the rate is accelerating, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A new climate idea aims to slow this rise by moving seawater to reflood inland depressions. The main causes of sea level rise are ice packs melting and the volume of water in the ocean expanding as Earth’s temperature increases due to human-caused climate change. Depending on the ferocity with which we cut greenhouse gas emissions, predictions of future sea level rise vary widely. According to NOAA, if we cap the global temperature rise at just 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels — nearly impossible at this point — the sea level would rise an additional 30 cm (12 in) by 2100. If emissions remain at the very high end of estimates, sea levels could rise by 200 cm (6.6 feet) by the end of the century, flooding many of the world’s coastlines and affecting tens of millions of people. There are even worse scenarios: if we lose much of Greenland’s ice sheet or the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica — dubbed the Doomsday Glacier — the resultant rise in water level could affect billions. A new research grant is looking at the idea of reflooding lowland depressions to alleviate the problem on the coasts, starting with the Qattara Depression, a massive low-lying desert area…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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