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With polar temperatures ∼3–5 °C warmer than today, the last interglacial stage (∼125 kyr ago) serves as a partial analogue for 1–2 °C global warming scenarios. Geological records from several sites indicate that local sea levels during the last interglacial were higher than today, but because local sea levels differ from global sea level, accurately reconstructing past global sea level requires an integrated analysis of globally distributed data sets. Here we present an extensive compilation of local sea level indicators and a statistical approach for estimating global sea level, local sea levels, ice sheet volumes and their associated uncertainties. We find a 95% probability that global sea level peaked at least 6.6 m higher than today during the last interglacial; it is likely (67% probability) to have exceeded 8.0 m but is unlikely (33% probability) to have exceeded 9.4 m. When global sea level was close to its current level (≥-10 m), the millennial average rate of global sea level rise is very likely to have exceeded 5.6 m kyr-1 but is unlikely to have exceeded 9.2 m kyr-1. Our analysis extends previous last interglacial sea level studies by integrating literature observations within a probabilistic framework that accounts for the physics of sea level change. The results highlight the long-term vulnerability of ice sheets to even relatively low levels of sustained global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the article "Ocean impact on decadal Atlantic climate variability revealed by sea-level observations" by Gerard D. McCarthy, Joël J.-M. Hirschi, David A. Smeed, and others which was published on page 508 of the same issue is presented.

The article focuses on findings reported by scientist Thomas Wahl and his colleagues who have analyzed sea-level across the U.S. Gulf Coast and have found that typical differences in sea level between summer and winter have increased, which increases the chance of hurricane-related flooding.

The article reports on the possibility that climate warming and the rise of sea levels will increase the frequency of local extremes in storm surges along much of the coastline in the U.S.

The article focuses on the accuracy of coastal tide gauges near dams in measuring the sea-level increase caused by climate change, wherein Julia Fiedler and Clinton Conrad from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii found an annual increase of approximately 2.3 millimeters in global sea levels from 1900-2010, which is quicker than results revealed by tide gauges.