Proposed change to lede The current lede states that Thermal expansion which is well quantified is currently the primary contributor to sea level rise and is expected to be the primary contributor over the course of the next century However while thermal expansion is expected to contribute more than half the increase in the coming century it isn t the primary contributor currently From AR4 page 409 Thermal expansion is projected to contribute more than half of the average rise but During recent years 1993 2003 for which the observing system is much better thermal expansion and melting of land ice each account for about half of the observed sea level rise I propose the following replacement sentence At the end of the 20th century thermal expansion and melting of land ice contributed roughly equally to sea level rise while thermal expansion is expected to contribute more than half the rise in the upcoming century I also intent to remove the subsequent sentence Glacial contributions to sea level rise are less important and are more difficult to predict and quantify as it is no longer needed Current footnote 8 doesn t support the claim or at least I couldn t find it as it is the AR4 chapter on Climate models not the chapter on Sea Level I will add the reference to the Sea Level chapter Any objections T