wboc.comReported by Kaylan Reid
Images of storms leave many wondering why.
Some say global warming is to blame; causing the oceans to heat up.
According to NASA, this has been the warmest Arctic season in 400 years. That's causing glaciers overseas to melt into the ocean, making sea levels across the world rise at a rapid rate.
They normally rise 1 to 2 millimeters every 100 years, but some scientists have seen a much more dramatic change.
Bob Thomas is an ice researcher at NASA's Wallops Island base. He says these increases are to be taken seriously. "If it continues to increase it starts to become very important , clearly problems like we had in Louisiana recently mainly because the city was already below sea level. If we make a few more cities below sea level than the problems are going to be ten fold what we're seeing now."
Thomas studies glaciers all over the world. He noticed a dramatic change in glacier melting over the last two decades, caused by what he says is a growing amount of greenhouse gases from our cars and industries.
Thomas says if we don't take the environment more seriously the effects could be devastating... "Certainly for our grandchildren, things that we're doing now or not doing now could have a terrible impact."
For now, scientists keep a watchful eye on the poles, as nature takes its course.
