To see the future, Maureen Raymo looks back.
Three million years back, to be exact. Raymo, a CAS research professor of earth sciences, and her colleagues are trying to predict just how high the oceans will rise as global warming melts polar ice sheets. It so happens that three million years ago, the level of carbon dioxide–the most influential gas, atmospherically speaking–was about the same as today. Mid-Pliocene temperatures were about three degrees warmer than ours, so as our mercury creeps toward that ancient temperature under the influence of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, knowing how much ice melted back then might shed light on how much could melt in the future. And how many coastal cities could become underwater parks.
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