Sea rose 8m in warmer age

SEA levels were likely 8m higher around 125,000 years ago when polar temperatures were 3-5 deg C warmer, says a new study published on Wednesday to show the effects of global warming.

The research by the US universities of Harvard and Princeton was released in the journal Nature as the world's nations met in Denmark to forge a strategy to head off harmful effects of global warming blamed on greenhouse gases.

To understand the potential effects of a rise in temperature, the researchers reexamined data about the last interglacial stage - a warmer period within an ice age - which climaxed about 125,000 years ago, they said.

At the time, polar temperatures were 3-5 deg C higher than today, providing a comparison for current scenarios of future rises of 1-2 deg C, they said.

'We find a 95 per cent probability that global sea level peaked at least 6.6m higher than today during the last interglacial,' the study said.

'It is likely (67 per cent probability) to have exceeded 8.0m but is unlikely (33 per cent probability) to have exceeded 9.4m,' it said.