Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise

A Nature study finds global coastal sea levels have been systematically underestimated—placing millions more people at risk—because common impact models have combined land elevations and sea levels using an overly simplistic "zero‑meter" baseline. The authors say roughly 90% of prior coastal‑hazard studies used this baseline while local factors like tides, currents and winds can make true coastal water levels in some Indo‑Pacific locations nearly 3 feet higher than assumed, a "methodological blind spot" (per co‑author Philip Minderhoud) underscored by on‑the‑ground damage in Vanuatu such as eroding beaches, uprooted trees, submerged graves and roads rerouted inland.