Are sea levels rising?

When listening to a podcast I was shocked by the amount of people that were going to be forcibly removed from their homes. I have found the culprit of this is climate change.

Rising sea levels are a result of global warming which is the warming of the atmosphere. The sea absorbs more than 90% of the sunlight further rising the sea levels as heated water expands. The second reason is the melting of ice such as glaciers, Greenland, Antarctica, and in the Arctic. Thirdly the building of pipes, dams and other infrastructure will affect average sea levels as pipes run more water into the ocean while dams will block water from reaching the ocean. Therefore, these infrastructures will affect the global sea level.

The storage of water in land will affect water levels. For example, in Australia and east Asia, there was heavy rainfall the water storages would fill up resulting in a drop of 1 centimeter in the global sea level.

The building of dams also helps stop sea level rising as it stops the water from reaching the sea reducing sea level rising, but when humans use natural water reservoirs from underground the water eventually ends up in the sea causing more sea level rise.

This heat comes from the greenhouse effect where the earth is like a greenhouse trapping all the sunlight in the atmosphere. This would heat up the globe not only causing sea level changes but creating heatwaves as well. The ‘glass’ in this place is CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane) and N2O (nitrous oxide). There are other gases which come from industrial areas (factories), such as HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), PFCs (perfluorocarbons), SF6 (Sulphur hexafluoride), and NF3 (nitrogen trifluoride). These gases trap the sun’s rays inside the earth, creating a cover for the earth that does not allow sunlight to escape.

Rising sea levels have drastic effects. Cities flood as the water can’t flow to the ocean. The flooding through cities damages the property of thousands. The flood of seawater ruins crops and water reservoirs, making drinking water unsafe and there will be an increasing in food prices and taxes will be increased (to fund repairs)

In conclusion the sea has risen over 20 cm since 1850. It will continue to rise if we do nothing. “We know we’re going to have sea rise. This is literally a one-way street now. The only thing we’re discussing now is how fast, it’s not whether anymore, and then eventually how much.” — Dr. Harold Wanless, chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami.

As Dr. Harold Wanless correctly states that sea rise will happen, we must do something about this.