Climate Change:
Rise in Sea Levels
Global Warming
Global warming can be defined as a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere. These increases are attributed to the greenhouse effect which are caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.
Global warming is occurring because of human actions such as fossil fuel use, deforestation, and unsustainable farming practices. When we burn fuels such as gas, oil, and coal to produce electricity, we release mass amounts of CO2 into the air. These gasses cause a “greenhouse effect,” which prevents heat from escaping the atmosphere. Deforestation contributes to 20% of global greenhouse gas pollution because trees absorb CO2 and transform it into oxygen. Therefore, without trees, there is an increased amount of CO2 in the air. Similarly, farming animals create greenhouse gasses because livestock produce mass amounts of methane and fertilizers release nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.
As a result of global warming, there has been a drastic rise in global sea levels. The rise in sea levels can have detrimental effects on agriculture, humans and wildlife.
Causes
There is not a single causal factor for the rise in sea levels, rather, it can be attributed to a chain of effects. Global warming (the rising temperature of the earth), is causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt and is causing the thermal expansion of seawater.
Melting Glaciers
The global rise in temperatures have resulted in glaciers melting, which has added greater volumes of water to the ocean.
There is nearly 30 million cubic kilometers of ice on earth, and as global temperatures rise, the ice melts. The melted ice turns into water, which flows into the ocean, rising the sea level. If all ice sheets were to melt, the sea would rise by an additional 70 meters.
Thermal expansion
As a result of warming surface waters, there has been thermal expansion.
As global temperatures rise, the ocean water is heated. Like many other materials, when water is heated, it expands, thus, resulting a greater volume.
"The time is past when humankind thought it could selfishly draw on exhaustible resources. We know now the world is not a commodity"