Rising Sea Level

Rising Sea Level

Of the many effects that climate change causes, the rise in sea level will be the most catastrophic. In the past 25 years, the global sea level has risen 3 inches. Right now, scientists estimate that the sea level rises at a rate of 0.13 inches a year. And because of global warming, we could expect that number to exponentially rise over the next 50-100 years.

What causes the sea level to rise?

Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay
Global warming is the root cause of why the sea level rises. As glaciers located at the north and south pole start seeing warmer summer temperatures they start breaking apart and melting away. This causes two things to happen. One is that more water is added to our oceans causing the sea level to rise. Glaciers are also great mirrors for heat. So if more melts, less heat is reflected back to space. Which means the warmer Earth gets. This is a feedback loop. There is also another way global warming causes the sea level to rise. Due to thermodynamics, as water heats up it expands. The ocean being as huge as it is, this expansion is measurable. Heat expansion of the ocean has caused nearly half of the sea level rise in the past 25 years. We can expect the melting of glaciers and heat expansion to happen at a much faster rate, which means the sea level will rise at a faster rate as well.

Are there any threats that global sea level rise poses?

Yes! Scientists estimate that by 2100 global sea level will rise 1 foot at the very least to eight feet at the very extreme. This endangers coastal cities around the world. Nearly 40% of the United States population lives on the coast where sea level rise is a threat. By 2050 at the very least, much of Florida will be underwater. Florida won’t be a great place to live because of the low elevations and their limestone bedrock. Limestone absorbs water like a sponge and will cause the peninsula of Florida to sink much faster. Overall, rising sea level is bad. All we can do to stop it is to reduce and eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions. Adapting to this problem would mean building stronger infrastructure that can handle sea level rise. With climate change at its current rate, all coastlines may become inhabitable due to flooding caused by the sea level rising.