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Don't worry too much, for now, about rising seas caused by melting ice in
Greenland and Antarctica. The big threat this century could come from small
thawing glaciers, researchers reported on Thursday.
Even though these glaciers contain only 1 percent of the water tied up in the
great ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, they could account for 60 percent
of an anticipated rise in the world's sea level by the year 2100.
Sea-level rise is seen a key consequence of global warming, and much of the
concern has focused on the big ice sheets that contain the vast majority of the
world's ice.
Researchers writing in the online journal Science Express estimate melting
glaciers, which are located all over the globe including in the tropics, could
add between 4 and 10 inches (0.1 to 0.25 metres) to world sea level this
century.
While this may not sound like much, consider that some 100 million people live
within 3.3 ...