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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, shortwavers, Emily Kwong here with NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher.

Hi.

Who is bringing us this month's listener question for Nature Quest?

Okay, Becky, what do you got?

All right.

This month's question comes from

a listener in Santa Cruz, California. I love how we're automatically game show hosts right now.

Welcome, onto the stage. Santa Cruz, it's on the coast, right? It's an area a little bit south

of San Francisco. Yeah, I've actually never been there, but I've heard it's very gorgeous. I've

seen pictures. There are cliffs, there are beaches.

This listener, though, his name is Peter Lansdale, is kind of worried about what's going to happen to that landscape in the future.

Hey, Shor Wave, this is Peter from Santa Cruz, California.

I am wondering what the projections are for sea level rise in the next couple decades.

We've seen a lot of damage recently on our coast, and to some extent that's normal,

because we're built on sandstone and everything is always changing here, but it would certainly accelerate if the sea was any higher than it already is. So I'm wondering

if there's consensus on how many feet we're looking at. All right. What do you think, Becky?

I love this question. I do. It's such a simple and important one. Yeah. Basically, is there scientific consensus

about how much sea levels will rise and how quickly it'll happen? And since we don't all live in

...