Introduction

One of the most severe aspects of climate change is the rise of sea levels as a result of increasing global temperatures. The science of why sea levels are rising is relatively simple but crucial to understand in order to have a solid foundation in climate change. There are several factors that go into the rise of sea levels that combine to create a massive issue, but knowing why they happen and what impact they will have on the planet will let us build adequate solutions. 

What Is Causing Sea Levels To Rise?

As we briefly mentioned in an earlier post, What is Climate Change?, sea levels are rising due to global warming. This is happening from two main factors: expanding seawater and melting ice caps. 

First, let’s talk about expanding seawater. So, in middle school or high school, you probably talked about the different states of matter. You probably learned that the three main states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas. The property that sets these states of matter apart is the closeness of the molecules they are made up of. Things with tightly-packed molecules are solids, things with loosely-packed molecules are gases, and liquids fall somewhere in the middle. Hopefully, you’re still following along. 

You probably also learned that when things are either heated or cooled to a certain temperature, they can change states of matter. So, when a solid is heated to a temperature known as the melting point, the solid melts to a liquid. And, when a liquid is heated to a boiling point, the liquid boils and turns to a gas. At the same time, when the temperature reaches the condensation point, a gas turns to a liquid. Stay with me here. The reason that these substances change states of matter is that their molecules either spread further apart or come closer together when they are either heated or cooled, respectively. This reaction, formally referred to as thermal expansion, occurs on an extremely large scale in our planet with seawater. 

What Are The Effects of Rising Sea Levels?

There’s a sentence from David Wallace-Wells’ book called The Uninhabitable Earth that may give you a good idea of the effects of rising sea levels: 

“Sea-level rise inundates cropland with more and more saltwater flooding, transforming agricultural areas into brackish sponges no longer able to adequately feed those living off them; flooding power plants, knocking regions offline just as electricity may be needed most; and crippling chemical and nuclear plants, which, malfunctioning, breathe out their toxic plumes.” 

This may seem extreme but these effects are already in play today. And the worst part is that each effect has its own separate devastating effects that all accumulate to turn into a potential catastrophe. Here’s a few:

Major Geographic Alterations

Some of the biggest threats from rising sea levels are significant changes to the world’s geography, especially coastal regions. These places are more susceptible to things like coastal erosion and even submerging coasts as sea levels continue to rise. 

Florida is considered to be one of the most vulnerable places to sea-level rise in the United States, and the forecast for the future is grim:

The image above is a map of Florida, “showing [the] extent of submergence associated with an atmospheric temperature increase.” You can see that as the temperature increases, more land has a chance of being SUBMERGED, covering major Florida cities including Miami, Cape Canaveral, and Jacksonville. It’s important to remember that this is just a prediction, but we should take away the overall message that the consequences of rising sea levels can be disastrous. (I suggest you read the entire paper that featured this image to learn more about the specifics of their research.)

Increased Flooding

Economic Issues

As coasts are chipped away by the rising sea levels and floods becoming more frequent from extreme storms, the economies of coastal regions will suffer tremendously. Buildings will be destroyed, people will lose their homes, jobs will be lost. Nature will have effectively ruined the lifestyles of potentially millions of innocent people. Numerous people would be forced to fall into poverty after such devastation, forcing them to start from square one. 

Mass Migration

You may have realized that the coasts are the ones who bear the brunt of the consequences of rising sea levels. However, this does not mean that other places will not feel the effects as well. Many people on the coasts who have faced the conditions that were brought upon them by rising sea levels or are in fear of these conditions will migrate to “safer” places. They will seek retreat in regions away from the coasts under the assumption that they will be shielded by the effects of climate change. This means that people will repeatedly migrate because they will treat their locations as temporary and continue to find new places where they can seek climate refuge. As you may have realized, this response is misguided since the effects of climate change are wide-ranging and will affect everybody, everywhere.

Solutions

Look, the best and more permanent solution to this problem is to simply reverse climate change since this will reduce the rate at which sea levels rise on a global scale. However, this may be too much of a large-scale solution for people and places already feeling the wrath of rising sea levels (someone should make a movie with that name). These areas will need quicker and easier solutions in the short-term, even if they are only temporary. 

Sea Walls

One of the most commonly proposed solutions to rising sea levels is building a sea wall. It’s literally what it sounds like, a wall for the sea that is supposed to protect the mainland from seawater. There was a plan to build one in New York but, perhaps, the best example can be found in Rotterdam, Netherlands, which is a major port city that stands 90% below sea level. You can imagine the dangers that this could present, so the Dutch built a network of barriers that would protect the mainland. One of the parts of this barrier is called the Maeslant Barrier (Maeslantkering) which is controlled by a computer and can be remotely closed when there is a looming threat of a flood. (You can see a video of the barrier closing here.)

Sponge Cities

In many places, mainly in Asia, countries are developing “sponge cities” that would attempt to mitigate the damage caused by rising sea levels. The concept would work such that whenever water reaches the surface, it is absorbed like a sponge and stored for future use. This would be done by rebuilding coastal infrastructure to be able to both withstand and collect the water. This is an ambitious plan, to say the least, and even doing this will simply be an avoidance of the issue at hand. But, hey, at least it’s not nothing. 

Conclusion

So, hopefully, you feel educated enough on rising sea levels by this point. You should know that they are caused by global warming through thermal expansion and melting ice caps. In fact, you are so smart that you even understand the countless implications of rising sea levels and their severe consequences. Not only that, but you know about some solutions that people are trying to combat rising sea levels though reversing climate change is the most sustainable way to go. Look, I think it may be a bit premature to call yourself an “expert” on this subject but you definitely know more than a large majority of the world, and you should be proud of that. So, go share your knowledge with the rest of the world and leave any questions, comments, or concerns below 🙂