Global Sea Levels Rising 60% Faster Than Expected, Says A Recent Study

As the East Coast of the United States reels from hurricane Sandy, climatologists warn that the devastating superstorm was merely an omen of things to come.

According to a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters, worldwide sea levels are rising 60 percent faster than previously projected, reports The Guardian. Years ago, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected a 2mm per year rise in global sea levels, which has since been eclipsed by recent figures of 3.2mm per year.

"The study indicates that this is going to be as bad or worse than the worst case scenarios of the IPCC so whatever you were planning from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod in terms of how you were preparing for sea-level rise -if you thought you had enough defenses in places, you probably need more," says US Mathematician Grant Foster. "I would say that if you took a poll among the real experts these days they would probably say that a more realistic figure [of global sea-level rise] would be more than [1m by the end of the century]."

Ben Strauss of Climate Central adds, "In some places it takes only a few inches of sea-level rise to convert a once in a century storm to a once in a decade storm."

German Climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf reinforces that "Generally people are coming around to the opinion that this is going to be far worse than the IPCC projections indicate."

Climate change is an issues are currently being discussed by the international community at Doha, Qatar.