The New York Times ran a front page article last Sunday (Reading Earth's Future in Glacial Ice -- Rising Seas Predicted as Threat to Coastal Areas -November 14, 2010) about how climate scientists are seeing more evidence they may have seriously undercalled the melting rates of Greenland and Antarctica. The previous estimate of average sea level rise through 2100, generated from apparently conservative computer models, was a modest and safe seven inches. Over the past few years they have taken measurements to validate and improve the models and the resulting analysis suggested a sea level rise of a startling fifteen feet. That got a lot of attention and more studies followed, models were reworked, more data was added. The result was a predicted conservative sea level rise of three feet and a possible worst case of six feet.

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