Future sea level rise poses a high risk to the rapidly increasing population in many coastal location. Unlike heat waves, droughts, storms and river floods, which have severe impacts on local to regional scales, a significant sea level rise will have impacts at the global scales. A rapid sea level rise caused be a collapse of parts of the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets would result in massive migration, catastrophic loss of production capabilities and coastal real estate, and unprecedented pollution of the ocean. It is hard to imaging how humanity would cope with such a massive global disaster impacting social, economic and ecological systems at an unprecedented scale.
There is an urgent need for a better assessment of the full range of plausible sea level rise trajectories at local and regional scales to enable responsible risk governance. The SLR VCC aims for a comprehensive overview of recent advances in observations of sea level changes from local to global scales as well as the driving processes for sea level changes from decadal to century time scales. Forecasting decadal sea level changes at local and regional scales is an urgently needed services for engaged in risk governance in coastal settlements and mega cities. The SLR VCC will consider advances in modeling to enable such a forecasting. Scenario studies can help to establishing the probability density function of future sea level rise from local to global scales, which is a crucial input for thorough risk assessments. Assessing the potential impacts of sea level changes on coastal areas is another central input for risk governance.
If you are engaged in sea level related research or a societal stakeholder engaged in one way or another in risk governance related to sea level rise, please, do join this VCC. We need you!
[Feb. 24, 2026] New Scenario for 2028 Points to an AI-related Highly Undesirable Future for Economy: Aisha Down and Dan Milmo discuss in their article “‘A feedback loop with no brake’: how an AI doomsday report shook US markets” the scenario study “THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future” by Citrini and Alap Shah posted on February 22, 2026 on Substack. This study points out that the financial system of today was optimized over decades for a world of scarce human minds. AI changed this: “This is the first time in history the most productive asset in the economy has produced fewer, not more, jobs. Nobody’s framework fits, because none were designed for a world where the scarce input became abundant. So we have to make new frameworks. Whether we build them in time is the only question that matters.” The authors point out that the economy could find a new equilibrium, and “getting to this new equilibrium is one of the few tasks left that only humans can do. We need to do it correctly.”
[Feb. 12, 2026] Are we already at or close to a Point of no Return?: Damian Carrington raises this question in his article in the Guardian titled “Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say.” The most recent paper by Ripple et al. assesses “The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory,” and the author's conclusions are pointing to an increasing probability of Earth moving into a hothouse state. The assessment should be an alarm bell for all of us. Continuing on the current path of our economy and society comes with the high risk of mass extinction, and the current uncertainty could soon turn into certainty.
