"On a recent afternoon, Scott McKenzie watched torrential rains and a murky tide swallow the street outside his dog-grooming salon. Within minutes, much of this stretch of chic South Beach was flooded ankle-deep in a fetid mix of rain and sea.
“Welcome to the new Venice,” McKenzie joked as salt water surged from the sewers." ----- Michael J. Mishak, Associated Press June 7, 2014 at 4:24 PM EDT
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.
Scientists appear to have become aware of the issue of rising sea levels in the mid to late 1980s. An article published in Science News in 1987 predicted that “global warming… will cause… the world's oceans to expand, raising the average sea level by 4 to 8 centimeters in the next 40 years” (Monastersky). Though 4 to 8 centimeters sounds like a miniscule amount in relation to the vastness of the world’s oceans, this early article disturbed many readers. Many for this reason: early stud...
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...such as Albert Einstein. “Two things are infinite,” the sardonic prophet once said, “the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Works Cited
Byfield, Mike. "Kyoto- The Science and The Hype." Newsmagazine 4 Nov 2002. 16 Jan 2005 .
"Earth Island Journal." A Rising Ride Sinks All Islands Vol. 11. Fall 1999. 15 Jan 2005 .
Monastersky, Richard. "Rising sea levels: Predictions and plans.." Science News 11 1987. 15 Jan 2005 .
Robinson, Arthur B. and Zachary W. "Science Has Spoken: Global Warming Is a Myth." 04 Dec 1997. Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. 16 Jan. 2005 .
Recent studies based on satellite monitoring by NASA reveals that melting ice from both the poles has been responsible for a fifth of the global rising sea levels since 1992 (11 mm). Antarctica and Greenland are now contributing three times as much ice to sea levels as they were 20 years ago. Although the Greenland ice sheet is only about...
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).
"global warming, climate change, earth and environment news from Scientific American." global warming, climate change, earth and environment news from Scientific American. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
The “Go Green” lifestyle trend has emerged as a new way for humans to prevent a possible catastrophic environmental event that, some if not all, people believe will occur because of Global Warming. The people that have chosen to change their habits of recycling garbage, buying fuel efficient cars instead of 70's style gas guzzlers or live in a Eco-friendly house have spent some of their time researching what lies ahead for the human race if Global warming is not addressed. The scientific community has predicted many different environmental impact scenarios based on Global Warming, such as runaway heat waves and coastal flooding, but the one scenario that is most likely to come to pass for our planet is a new ice age. The addition of fresh water to the Atlantic Ocean caused by melting ice caps will change the current dynamics that are responsible for northern latitudes moderate climate and the added solar energy absorption in the atmosphere by greenhouse gasses will create convection currents and cool the Earth’s climate, pushing it into the next ice age.
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.
The use of fossil fuels has greatly increased the amount of atmospheric and oceanic CO2 to a point where it’s ruining the natural flow of the world; the earth’s temperature is rising. As a result, the polar ice caps are melting causing the seas to rise. With only a 1 meter increase in sea level the United States alone could lose over 10,000 square miles of land, and thousands of houses will be destroyed. The effects will be just as prominent around the world: many islands will become submerged, 17% of Bangladesh will be underwater, and tens of thousands of people will be displaced (“Global Warming” 3).
Climate change and Global Warming are out of control. This means that, no matter what policies, processes or actions are implemented, the Earth as we know it will never be the same again. There is significant evidence to support this hypothesis. The dilemma becomes whether we can limit the damage and adapt to a new status quo or not. Rising sea levels and the damage caused by this phenomenon has irreversible impacts on coastlines worldwide. Damage to sensitive reef systems cannot be fixed. This also has permanent impacts of the ecology not just of those immediate areas but also the ocean as a whole.
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.
Buildings and houses in coastal areas that are low can be flooded from the sea level rising and even submerged..The sea level rising can cause harm to the environment in coastal wetlands including the habitat. Human caused global warming has caused 3 inches of sea level rise since 1992 and some places it has even been 9 inches. Two third of the sea level rising is caused by expansion of warmer ocean waters and only one third comes from the glaciers and ice sheets melting. As you can see in the chart right here, you can see that the annual global air temperature increasing has resulted in the trend of sea level rising. In 1960, the temperature was low and so there was no sea level change but as the years go on you can see that the temperature increases, and so does the seal level. By 2010, it has almost reached
Hoffman, J. (2007, May). The maldives & rising sea levels [Fact sheet]. Retrieved March 16, 2014, from Ice Case Studies website: http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/maldives.htm
"On a recent afternoon, Scott McKenzie watched torrential rains and a murky tide swallow the street outside his dog-grooming salon. Within minutes, much of this stretch of chic South Beach was flooded ankle-deep in a fetid mix of rain and sea.
Observational records indicate that sea level has already risen between 10 and 25 cm globally over the past 100 years. In addition, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected a sea-level rise of 15-95 cm as a consequence of global warming. Sea-level rise will also increase the depth of coastal waters and increase inland and upstream salinity intrusion, both of which affect fresh and brackish water wetlands. Sea-level rise has the potential for increasing the severity of storm surges, particularly in areas where coastal habitats and barrier shorelines are rapidly deteriorating. These direct consequences of global- and regional-scale changes will increase the vulnerability of coastal wetlands which are already heavily impacted by human activities.
Gray, Lousie. "'Crazy Ideas ' to Fight Global Warming Revealed by Scientists." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 June 2009. Web. 25 May 2014.
Vannela, Raveender. "Are We “Digging Our Own Grave” Under the Oceans?" Environmental Science & Technology 46.15 (2012): 7932-933. Print.
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...