MIAMI, the United States, Sept. 12 -- While Hurricane Irma has ravaged Miami and surrounding areas in southeastern U.S., the real problem is rising sea levels, a potentially disastrous problem that Miami shares with cities worldwide, experts said.

MIAMI AT RIST EVEN ON SUNNY DAYS

For the first time in recorded history, ocean levels are rising, after being stable for the last 5,000 or 6,000 years. The U.S. National Ocean Service said global sea levels will likely continue to rise, and Miami residents said flooding due to rising sea level has worsened over the years.

Now, low lying cities worldwide, from Mumbai to Bangkok to Miami here in southern Florida, are under the same threat, as many are low lying and not built with sea level rise in mind.

While hurricanes and other storms can bring short term damage, slowly rising sea levels threaten to put cities permanently under water.

"It's not just about Miami. Any coastal city in the world, including Mumbai, Jakarta, Tokyo, Calcutta ... are all low lying coastal cities," John Englander, a leading expert and author on rising sea levels, told Xinhua.

"Sea level rise is becoming a problem in all of those places," he said. "Miami is good as an illustration, but if we think it's a Miami problem we're going to be misled."

"Because from Washington D.C. to London, England, those are cities on tidal rivers, and as the ocean height rises, those cities have more flooding too," said Englander, author of High Tide On Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis.

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