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Published online 17 March 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050314-13
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Oceans extend effects of climate change
Sea levels will rise for centuries, even if we stop burning fossil fuels now.
Even if the world stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, the emissions already in the atmosphere would cause global temperatures to climb for the next hundred years and the sea level to keep rising for even longer, scientists have calculated.
Researchers have long known that the oceans delay the full effects of climate change because they heat up more slowly than the land.
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