Since 1900, analysis of a global network of tide gauge records reveals that global sea level has been rising at the rate of about 0.6 inches per decade. After 1992, satellite altimeters indicate that the rate of rise has increased to 1.2 inches per decade, which becomes the largest rate over the last 2000 years. According to NOAA scientists, continued sea level rise and land subsidence will lead to severe consequences such as massive storm surges and frequent tidal floods. Therefore, researches conducted by our group are aimed to remind people of the severity of rising sea level, raise proposals on how to slow down the pace of it, and discuss how the U.S. should prepare for the incoming profound impacts.
After a few discussions, each member
…show more content…
For instance, since more seawater reaches further inland, it can cause destructive erosion, flooding of wetlands, contamination of aquifers and agricultural soils, and loss of habitat for plants and wildlife. Meanwhile, some low-lying islands would also be submerged completely. Additionally, when large storms hit land, higher sea level will become the breeding ground for more powerful storm surges. For example, when hurricane Sandy was moving towards the East Coast, the higher sea level was one of the major factors that exacerbated its storm surges to cause a 75-billion-dollar damage and 233 …show more content…
Based on Climate Central, for example, the growth of trees may be stunted or stopped because it is more difficult to absorb water from salty soil. Besides, various forms of wildlife settle down their home on the beach. As the ocean water floods the area, animals like shorebirds and sea turtles will suffer, since their delicate nests may be swept away. This is an especially serious problem for endangered animals like sea turtles that cannot afford to lose any offspring. Nonetheless, their habitats may be so damaged by flooding or changes in the surrounding environment that they can no longer
Authorities at LSU's Hurricane Center and Water Resources Research Institute, and US Army Corps of Engineers lead a discussion of how Louisiana's coastal region is doomed to storm surges. A case in point is the deterioration of the Mississippi Delta, a triangular-shaped deposition of sediment, which works to mitigate flooding and damage caused by storm surges. In fact, every four miles of the delta could knock down a storm surge by one foot. Unfortunately, some areas of the delta like Port Fouchon are losing 40 to 50 feet of land per year. By 2090, experts at LSU have postulated that the delta will be gone - vulnerably leaving New Orleans on the sea. Aside from the delta, barrier islands and marshes are the only other two natural entities which could mitigate a storm surge. The barrier islands' black mangrove trees and the marshes' tall grasses interfere with incoming gulf currents. However, just like the Mississippi Delta, these natural entities are also eroding (Fischetti, 2001).
Sea levels have been on the rise since 1880, steadily increasing every year, as seen in figure 1 provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Globally, sea levels have risen 10-25cm (3.9 - 9.8inches) in the past century due to water input from melting ice caps (Hopkinson et al.). Sea level rise is most prominent on the east and west coast. On the east coast, sea levels have risen anywhere from six inches to over eight inches. Over on the west coast, specifically in the Southern California region, sea levels have risen 0.01 inches up to two inches according to the web article, Climate Indicators in the United States, published by the EPA. This climate change significantly affects the inhabitants of coastal areas being that nearly 53% of the United States population resides there (Crossett et al. 2004).
While it is hard to directly connect Hurricane Sandy to global warming, it is clear that warmer waters and increased sea level contributed to the severity of the storm. Higher sea levels increase the chance that hurricane winds will bring more water on land and storm surges that reach further inland. The Atlantic region is already experiencing sea level rise, and globally this trend is expected to continue. Ocean temperatures are also on the rise, an...
The picture above shows areas which are red in the UK and northern Europe which would be completely underwater if sea levels were to rise by five meters. It is clearly seen in the picture that a lot of coastal areas would be significantly affected. If coastal areas were to be affected, millions of people would have to be re-located causing many social and economical problems. At the rate in which global sea levels are rising 30mm/year and is set to increase and rise more, these areas highlighted in red would be underwater in approximately 160 years time due to human activity with increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
In Boston, climate change has already started to take it’s effect on the city. Days get hotter sooner in the year, it snows less, but most troubling of it all for me is the rising of the ocean. At first glance it may not seem like a urgent thing to be worried about. Who cares if the water’s a little higher up? But if the sea continues to rise and we don’t prepare for it, our city could take massive damage from flooding. Scott K. Johnson, who has a master’s in Hydrogeology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says “While rising sea levels do threaten to simply inundate some areas around the harbor, they also limit the effectiveness of drainage systems, which function based on the lower elevation of ocean water.”
The temperatures rise and the amount of rainfall decreases which disturbs the natural system of the Earth, causing ice caps to melt, sea levels to rise, plants and animal food sources to deplete which in turn affects humans food sources and agriculture, and natural disasters to occur more often. Similarly, climate change seems to have the greatest impact on the oceans and ecosystems along the coast. Many countries center themselves on their water supply; for instance, throughout history, population has always been the densest along rivers and lakes, but mostly along the coasts. People need water to survive, not only for drinking and their homes, but they also use water to import and export goods, and for transportation. “Many areas of the United States, especially the West, currently face water supply issues. The amount of water available in these areas is already limited, and demand will continue to rise as population grows. The West has experienced less rain over the past 50 years, as well as increases in the severity and length of droughts; this has been especially of concern in the Southwest” (“Climate Change Impacts”). Another concern of climate change is the rising of sea levels, which is caused by ice melting or the shifting of the land and the plates. When the sea level rises, it affects not only all of the human activities, but the quality of their water, as well as the plants
The principle causes of eustatic sea-level change are due to the variations of ocean-water volume and by the changes in the volume of the ocean basins. Variations in the volume of seawater are controlled by the formation and melting of the ice caps and glaciers. When water accumulates as ice on the land surface it causes sea-level to fall, whereas during inter-glacial periods the reverse happens and sea-levels begins to rise (Pethick 1984). This known as glacio-eustasy. In terms of the volume of water involved in this process, Pethick (1984) believes that if all the ice in the world were to melt, present day sea-level rise would rise by 40-60 metres, with Rothery (1998) and Coe et al (2005) suggesting this could be as high as 80 metres. Changes in the v...
Ecological shifts are threatening billions of coastal residents around the world. Planet Earth is shifting severally. Temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting, hurricanes are growing stronger, and oceans are expanding and covering coasts at disturbing rates. Many people question the reason of sea rise levels. But it is not a myth, scientist have proven that the icebergs 1that sit on Greenland and Antarctica land are melting at a rapid rate. But unfortunately, that is not the biggest contributor to this problem. Most of the sea rise levels are a cause of the rising temperatures of the water in the top surface of the oceans. Water expands when it is frozen, but it also expands when heats up.
My parents grew up in small town in Mexico. There was a little river that went through part of the town when they were growing up. Every weekend or so they would go out and would go swimming with their families, it almost became a tradition to go swimming there until they noticed that the river 's water level was becoming smaller and smaller. Today there is no river anymore, instead it 's a road that travels through the town. Every time I visit my family in Mexico it would alway be nice and warm up until this year when I went in December. I remember waking up and getting ready to go to my aunt 's house in clothes for warm weather. As I open the door, the cold air punch me and I saw snowflakes falling down. It 's not supposed to snow in that
Climate change. The two letter word so feared by scientists, so ignored by the average human being. What is it that makes scientists fear this phrase so much? For the concept of “climate change” has been seen throughout the history of the earths existence. For centuries, our climate has fluctuated through increasing and decreasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide and climatic cycles. So what is the big deal? The problem, and the reason why this concept instills fear directly into the core of scientists is the rate at which over the past 1,300 years atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen. This unnatural increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, due to the immense amount of anthropogenic burning of oil and coal, affects the transfer
In a world divided by war, it is easy to overlook problems that affect all of mankind. The dramatic rise in ocean levels worldwide constitutes just that sort of problem. Although the fundamental problem of global warming has been given airtime and plenty of written-media coverage, the problem of rising sea levels seems to have met a certain amount of apathy. A likely explanation is that the rising sea levels mainly threatens impoverished peoples that may have no choice but to doubt the threat, since there is no way for them to relocate. Concurrently, Americans, seemingly beset by some false sense of well-being, really have no fear of the possible annihilation of our coastal cities. Granted, the worst case scenario (the total loss of all glacial ice) would take several hundred years to become a reality, but the possibilities are frightening.
The potential impacts of climate change on wetlands are of great concern. Increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by human activities are generally expected to warm the Earth a few degrees (C) in the next century by a mechanism known as the "greenhouse effect." Such warming could raise sea level by expanding ocean water, melting mountain glaciers, and eventually causing polar ice sheets to side into the oceans. Among the coastal areas of greatest risk in the United States are those low-lying coastal habitats that are easily eroded and which occur along the northern Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic coasts of the U.S. These coastal wetlands are especially vulnerable to direct, large-scale impacts of climate change, primarily because of their sensitivity to sea-level rise.
The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.
One of the major effects of global warming is the rise of sea level due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to the melting of land ice. Now there are dozens of land areas that sit well below sea level and the majority of those land areas are very well populated. At least 40 percent of the world 's population lives within 62 miles of the ocean, putting millions of lives and billions of dollars ' worth of property and infrastructure at risk. (Juliet Christian-Smith, 2011) This means if the sea level rises to the projected level of 25 meters (82 feet) half of the world will retreat back to the ocean. (Rohrer, 2007) Also rising sea levels means higher tides and storm surges riding on ever-higher seas which are more dangerous to people and coastal inf...
Even if the reason of climate change may be the natural cycles, we humans are the major determinant to it. The huge amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is causing the climate change and this amount is rising day by day, as a result of our actions. Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, generally absorb and emit the heat in the atmosphere to keep the Earth’s climate habitable. However, as we continue to burn fossil fuels, this habitable Earth’s temperature will blow up, and as a result, some species will die out due to various problems which are caused by climate change. According to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the most obvious consequence of climate change is the rising sea levels, which will cause some seashore habitats to become unavailable to live to its species.