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Investors Face Big, Emerging Risks from Sea Level RiseSubmitted by: Doug Cogan, Climate Change Research Group

The latest news out of Antarctica should send shock waves around the globe. Or perhaps I should say a tidal wave, because some of its glaciers are melting surprisingly fast and could start to swamp our coastal cities, where half the world?s population lives, as the sea level rises. Owners of long-lived coastal assets?and those who insure them?should take heed.

As the last unpopulated and undeveloped continent on Earth, Antarctica hardly seems like a place worthy of much attention, but it is our world?s canary in a coalmine. Just as the discovery of the ?ozone hole? over Antarctica 20 years ago led to a ban on man-made chlorofluorocarbons, the latest discovery speaks to the need to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels that are contributing to this melting.

Until recently, scientists thought that Antarctica?s climate and ice sheets would remain relatively stable and withstand the effects of global warming for at least many centuries. Now signs are that altered wind and ocean currents already are bringing warmer water to the continent?s perimeter, eating away at Antarctica?s frozen edges.

Especially vulnerable is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, an area about the size of Texas, whose terrain is flat, shallow and mainly under sea level. As its boundary starts to melt, the effect is much like popping a cork from a bottle?unplugging a flow of ice that is hard to stop once it gets going. If all of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt, it would release enough freshwater to raise the global sea level by nearly 25 feet, flooding major urban areas like New York City, Florida?s ?Gold Coast? and California?s Sacramento delta, to name but just a few U.S. examples.

Full post as published by Institutional Shareholder Services -- Corporate Governance Blog on January 29, 2008 (boomark / email).