Sea Level Rise


Folger, T. September 2013. Rising Seas [http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/folger-text]. National Geographic

The burning of fossil fuels in the past century has created many problems here on our planet Earth like pollution for example. Pollution has then caused one problem specifically, global warming. Global warming has shaped from late winters to early springs but most importantly, sea level rise (SLR). SLR is not a current issue, it has been around for a long period of time, but it has done most of its impact in recent years. SLR is causing economic, life, and natural consequences.

Imagine going to sleep to the sound of waves crashing. Going for a refreshing walk along the beach after a hot day. Waking up to the sound of seagulls and waves coming up against the shore. Now it is all gone, there is no beach, there is no sand. Cities like Miami, Florida and Santa Monica, California depend on their beaches to attract tourists from many parts of the country and world. Much of the money coming into those cities comes from tourism. Due to SLR, there has been a great deal of erosion not only in those areas, but in many seafront cities around the world. The erosion has caused many of these beaches to start to disappearing and taking customers with them. Is losing our precious beaches worth it? No, I do not think so. If we do not all act fast enough, the beaches and other beautiful cities around the world will be lost for good.

Mumbai, India is another location where SLR endangers the economy. Mumbai is famous for their ports and many types of trading. Mumbai is also in the top ten most endangered cities from SLR, putting more than 11 million people at risk of losing their homes.

SLR is a threat to many people living along the shores. As the water gets higher, people living along the coast are forced to move inland. People will have to start being displaced and forced to move to other cities with no choice. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana is already resting under sea level. The levees built around the city may keep out the water in prevention of flooding but as the water keeps rising, the levees will not be able to hold back the waters for long. People in New Orleans, in a few years, will be forced to leave their homes because of this global disaster as well as many other cities and countries.

According to the article, and http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/infographic-sea-level-rise-global-warming.html#.VIZWiDHF9TQ for more predictions, SLR has risen four to eight inches over the past century and is predicted to rise six to sixteen more inches by the year 2050. By the year 2100, current sea level will most likely be 12-48 inches higher than it is now! What we do today, as a whole Earth, can greatly change these predictions. The use of more fossil fuels will cause an increase in the heating of the atmosphere making summers longer and winters come to stop early on in the year. This increase will cause the decrease and melting of Greenland, and the north and south poles, starting with ice shelves slowly starting to break off. Warm waters occupy more space than cold waters do, which is not good news when the ice shelves broken off become ice bergs and they start to melt. In just the United States, we are at risk of losing famous cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City, New York; Miami, Florida; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Los Angeles, California and many more.

I personally think SLR is a conflict that should be made a priority in the world right now. It affects everyone as a whole and we as a whole are taking a part in it. Even though there are some methods in delaying SLR, such as building walls, levees, and adding more sand to beaches, these temporary solutions are just that: temporary. These techniques will not hold off forever and unless the population does not start taking action now, we will start to lose our lands for good. At the rate we are going now, more and more fossil fuels are being used, continuing this vicious heating cycle of the planet. Soon it might be too late to do anything about. If we don’t start realizing what is happening sooner rather than later, there will be nothing left to do in order to make this global threat come to a stop. Action plans must be made now and the mitigation process to the environment should have started yesterday.

SLR is slowly but surely changing our world. Soon enough, its impacts will start to rapidly make more of its changes. It can make a huge impact on how we, and the many generations to come, live and how we survive. The way we use our resources today greatly changes our Mother Earth in the near future.