Q: How can we curb the rate of sea level rise?
A: The answer to this question is a lot simpler than the solution: cut carbon emissions. Sea level rise is a delayed reaction dependent on temperature rise, which is a delayed reaction dependent on rising carbon emissions. The only way to prevent the continuing increase in the rate at which sea levels are rising and to prevent the possibility that they rise further than current projections is to cut net carbon emissions to zero, preferably negative, as quickly as possible.
As Professor Peter Clark of Oregon State University explained, “It’s like heating a pot of water on a stove; it doesn’t boil for quite a while after the heat is turned on – but then it will continue to boil as long as the heat persists.” Clark’s new research asserts that a short window spanning only the next few decades exists to get climate change under control before ensuring commitment to catastrophic climate change that will last millennia. More at Carbon Brief