--- title: Climate Change: How Cities Affected by Sea Level Rise description: Scientists can now evaluate how much an individual glacier or ice sheet melting contributes to rising sea levels in global port cities canonical: https://time.com/5029881/glacier-climate-change-sea-level-rise/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-17T20:07:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:32:06.206Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Can Now Tell How Much Glaciers Melting Will Affect Specific Cities og:description: New York will be most affected by the northeastern part of the Greenland ice sheet og:url: https://time.com/5029881/glacier-climate-change-sea-level-rise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91575e2b883f0c69/6988e65f7cdbac0b79d5af0c/climate-change-sea-level-rise.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: climate change sea level rise og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Can Now Tell How Much Glaciers Melting Will Affect Specific Cities twitter:description: New York will be most affected by the northeastern part of the Greenland ice sheet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91575e2b883f0c69/6988e65f7cdbac0b79d5af0c/climate-change-sea-level-rise.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Can Now Tell How Much Glaciers Melting Will Affect Specific Cities > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=74cf3799-2cad-4605-8689-c6d656220f85&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years [Watch (HLS stream): The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aWuzDvo2.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2017-10-31. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO)._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 17, 2017 8:07 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 17, 2017 8:07 PM UTC Scientists can now evaluate how much an individual glacier or ice sheet melting will contribute to rising sea levels in port cities around the world, according to [new research](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/11/e1700537). Climate scientists have said for decades that human-caused global warming causes ice to melt that in turn will raise global sea levels, and in recent years scientists have made increasingly [precise projections](http://time.com/4257194/sea-level-rise-climate-change-miami/) about how individual cities will be affected. Global sea levels may rise by more than six feet by 2100, according to research published in the journal _PNAS_. The new study, published by NASA researchers in the journal _Science Advances_, expands on that research with a demonstration of exactly which melting glacier or ice sheet causes sea levels to rise in a given city. An easily digestible platform to evaluate individual cities around the globe allows users to explore those inputs individually and aggregated. New York, for instance, will be most affected by the northeastern part of the Greenland ice sheet, which will generate about 28% of the city’s sea level rise due to melting glaciers and ice sheets (warmer temperatures also expand water, generating higher water levels). The distribution of rising sea levels will have profound implications for the future of human development along coastlines around the globe, with some scientists say coastal cities like Miami could be uninhabitable by the end of the century without dramatic action to stem greenhouse emissions. ## Transcript We have been breaking records in the concentrations of main greenhouse gases. And you have growth of carbon dioxide in one year has been also record breaking. We have never seen so big growth in one year as we have been seeing. Last year in carbon dioxide concentration. And this is demonstrating that we are not moving in the right direction at all. We are actually moving in the wrong direction if we think of implementation of the Paris Agreement. And this all demonstrates that there's an urgent need to [ INAUDIBLE ] decent level of climate mitigation, if you are serious with this 1. 5 to 2 degree target of Paris Agreement. Sometimes at the political level, they think that once they have signed the Paris Agreement, the problem is solved. But it's just the beginning of this process. And now the challenge is Is to convert our energy system, our transport system, and also our dietary system to favor carbon neutral or less carbon intensive base of behavior. And that hasn't happened fast enough to reach those targets at the moment. We have already started seeing growing amount of natural disasters related to weather. And folks have put economic losses related to these disasters. 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