COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Scientists in Denmark say climate models suggest the emission of greenhouse gases and pollution of the atmosphere will raise sea levels for the next 500 years.
"Based on the current situation we have projected changes in sea level 500 years into the future," Aslak Grinsted, a researcher at the Center for Ice and Climate at the University of Copenhagen, said.
Such sea level elevation from global warming could result in massive economic costs, social consequences and forced migrations, a university release said Monday.
In the most pessimistic scenario from the climate models, sea levels will rise 3.6 feet by 2100 and will have risen 18 feet by 2500, the researchers said.
Even in the most optimistic prediction, sea levels will have risen 2 feet by 2100 and 6 feet by 2500, the researchers said.
"In the 20th century sea has risen by an average of 2mm (0.07 inches) per year, but it is accelerating and over the last decades the rise in sea level has gone approximately 70 percent faster," Grinsted said.
