RECENT statistics showing the unprecedented Arctic sea ice melt ("Scots cameraman issues Arctic ice melt warning", The Herald, September 29) have prompted leading climate scientist Michael Mann to warn that rising water levels are decades ahead of what computer models predicted.

When you look at the major Greenland and the west Antarctic ice sheets, which are critical from the standpoint of sea level rise, once they begin to melt we really start to see sea level rises accelerate.

The models have typically predicted that will not happen for decades but the measurements that are coming in tell us it is already happening, so once again we are decades ahead of schedule.

The rise in levels is so fast that island nations in the Pacific will have to consider evacuation within a decade or so. Thousands of years of human culture will be wiped away by global warming and the inhabitants of the threatened islands are struggling to find places to become climate change refugees. Pacific island nations have proposed a legally binding agreement to curb global warming. They argued that all nations must acknowledge their role in the cause of the current climate catastrophe, and act before it's too late. Last week the consequences of global warming were spelled out in stark details. A report predicted 100 million deaths by 2030 (mostly in the developing world) if urgent action was not taken to combat global warming.

Alan Hinnrichs,

2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.