"Their research is helping answer existential questions of our time: How much will sea level rise, how fast, and what will be the impact on human civilizations?"

"The last time the Earth was as warm as it is now, sea level had risen so high it would have swamped many of today's cities.

That was about 125,000 years ago, and evidence shows that the warming leading up to that point had taken millennia. What's happening today, as heat-trapping greenhouse gases build up quickly in the atmosphere, is pushing the climate system at a far faster pace, leaving scientists scrambling to answer some existential questions.

How much more will sea levels rise? How fast? Where will the impacts be the greatest, and how will we adapt?

Three of those scientists—Andrea Dutton, Jerry Mitrovica and Stacy Jupiter—have now been awarded prestigious MacArthur Fellowships, widely known as "genius grants.""

Bob Berwyn reports for InsideClimate News September 29, 2019. [2]