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Download issue (1.37MB PDF) Cover Page Executive Summary 1.Climate Change: a primer 2.What is dangerous climate change? 3.1.Causes of sea-level rise 3.2.Rates of sea-level rise in history 3.3.Ice sheet melting and catastrophic sea-level rise 3.3a.The Greenland Ice Sheet 3.3b.The West Antarctic Ice Sheet 3.3c.Future prospects for coastal environments 4.Gulf Stream shutdown 5.Conclusions 6.Sources and Further Reading

Issues in Risk Science Dangerous Climate Change: rising sea-levels and ocean circulation changes - Professor Bill McGuire 5. Conclusions Climate change is still widely regarded as an incremental process that may affect future generations, but which is of limited relevance today. Recent modelling and observations show this to be far from the mark, and highlight the rapidity with which abrupt and dangerous changes to our environment can occur. They also enforce the idea that climate change does not necessarily involve wholesale warming across the planet, and help to stress that rising temperatures are not the only – or even the most serious – threat. Within decades we could see a rapid deterioration in the climate of the UK and Europe, sufficient to cause major economic and social problems. Within a century, sea-levels could have risen rapidly enough to put many coastal communities at risk and to require comprehensive programmes of sea-defence construction, managed retreat and relocation.