That sea levels will rise as Earth's ice melts is a prophecy that began to come true long ago, at the dawn of industrial civilization when humans began pumping vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Yet the timeline for sea level rise is not yet fully understood, nor do we really know how close our coastal cities are to facing devastation from the concomitant floods or higher tides.
Now, a new pair of studies reveals one possible — even likely — pathway for which sea level rise might play out on Earth, and flood our coastal cities.
