I’ve included a copy of my final and recent paper that I’ve worked on below. It was a research critical analysis essay in which we had to choose a topic and write a research paper on.

The Dangers of the Rising Sea Level

          The Earth’s climate has changed drastically throughout the years and as global warming becomes more apparent, it has started to affect the global sea level. The big question that is constantly being asked is: How is it affecting us? Why should we care? It’s critical to understand the effects of our increasing sea level as it affects our environment and the future of not just Americans, but the world. The rising of our sea level is predominantly caused by two factors: the spread of seawater due to increasing warm temperature, and the melting of the polar ice caps. This can have dangerous effects toward human life as it causes erosions, wetland flooding, lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants and destroys our infrastructure.

According to “Sea Level Rise” by National Geographic, “…over the past century, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters). However, the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years.” (National Geographic) This means that the average speed of our sea level has now doubled to how it was 80 years ago due to global warming. Over the previous century, the use of fossil fuels and other human exercises has released huge measures of heat gases into the climate. These results have made the Earth’s surface temperature rise, and the seas to intake around 80 percent of this extra warmth thus leading to the rise of the sea level. Glaciers and polar ice caps are known to naturally melt each summer and bounce back due to snowfall during the winter, however, the high temperatures caused by global warming, lowered the amount of snowfalls and caused an imbalance in the “ratio of runoff to ocean evaporation.” (National Geographic) This shows the two major leads of rising sea levels, which in the end all leads to global warming being the major cause as to where these two factors came in the first place.

According to Surging Seas, “All of this has been thoroughly documented. Scientists understand the expansion of water very well; they have watched many hundreds of glaciers around the world retreat over the past century; and careful measurements from the ground, air and space show that Greenland and Antarctica have been losing ice at an accelerating rate over the past two decades, at least.” Although many, especially political figures, disregard global warming, it is something that cannot be denied, and actions must be taken to combat the consequences. The article “Who Will Benefit From Sea-Level Rise?” from the Washington City Paper states, “Surely someone out there is already thinking of ways to make a few bucks.” and there is. The article goes on to list various ways one might benefit from climate change. It goes from renewable energy, to the worst, arctic drilling. Another source, “Global Warming: Who Loses—and Who Wins?” from The Atlantic states, “Arizona and Nevada, blazing growth markets today, might become unbearably hot and see their real-estate markets crash. If the oceans rise, Florida’s rapid growth could be, well, swamped by an increase in its perilously high groundwater table. Houston could decline, made insufferable by worsened summertime humidity, while the splendid, rustic Laurentide Mountains region north of Montreal, if warmed up a bit, might transmogrify into the new Poconos.” This is just a few of the states that will suffer economic and environmental decline due to the weather changes.

          With sea levels and atmospheric warming continuously growing, ocean levels will probably ascend for a long period of time at rates higher than the past century. According to “Ocean Facts: Is Sea Level Rising?” by the National Ocean Service, “In the United States, almost 40 percent of the population lives in relatively high-population-density coastal areas, where sea level plays a role in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. Globally, eight of the world’s 10 largest cities are near a coast, according to the U.N. Atlas of the Oceans.” Most of our world’s largest cities are near a coast which can be very dangerous and not only lead to a decrease in economic growth, but people losing their homes and jobs and damage to our infrastructure. Human infrastructure includes our “roads, bridges, subways, water supplies, oil and gas wells, power plants, sewage treatment plants, landfills…” (NOC) that are all at risk due to sea level rising. For example, according to “U.S. Coastal Flooding Breaks Records as Sea Level Rises, NOAA Report Shows” from Inside Climate News, “The frequency of high-tide flooding has doubled in 30 years. Some cities faced more than 20 days of it in the past year, and not just during hurricanes.” (Inside Climate News) They also state, “Tidal flooding is worsening in most places, and it’s currently most frequent in the Northeast, primarily because of the storms that regularly lash the coast each winter. But it’s getting worse fastest in the Southeast. The coast in that region is flat, so rising seas are exposing a relatively large area to new flooding.” (Inside Climate News) This shows how rapidly global warming is leading all these natural disasters to occur. The devasting consequences of rising sea levels have shown its impact across the U.S. and it’s just the beginning. Most expectations say the warming of the planet will proceed and will probably rapidly increase. Seas will keep on ascending as well, however, anticipating how much they will rise is vague. Scientists predict that by the year 2100, most of the east coast of the U.S. will be swamped from the ocean. (National Geographic)

Human effect on the earth incorporates changes to biophysical situations and biological communities, biodiversity, and common assets caused straightforwardly or in a roundabout way by people, including a worldwide temperature alteration, natural debasement, (for example, sea fermentation), mass elimination and biodiversity misfortune, and environmental emergency. Adjusting the earth to fit the necessities of society is causing extreme impacts, which turn out to be more dangerous as the issue of human overpopulation proceeds. According to the “Causes of Sea Level Rise: What the Science Tells Us (2013)” by the Union of Concerned Scientists, “global warming IS the primary cause of current sea level rise” and due to “Human activities, such as burning coal and oil and cutting down tropical forests, have increased atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases and caused the planet to warm by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880.” Also, according to Geospace: Earth and Space Science, “Climate models show that human activities, like burning fossil fuels, are responsible for 87 percent of the sea level rise since 1970 that’s been caused by swelling volume of the upper ocean. Natural forces, like solar radiation and volcanic activity, are responsible for the remainder of the increase in the upper ocean’s share of warming-induced, or thermosteric, sea level rise.” This was discovered from a recently new study published in the Geophysical Research Letters which shows that 90% of sea level rising is due to toxic human activities.

Since flooding has become so severe, some states have taken citywide actions to help better prepare for it. According to Inside Climate News, “Boston is two years into a city-wide initiative to protect itself from the effects of climate change, including rising seas. It has begun efforts to shield some vulnerable areas by building new flood walls and elevating streets.” and “New York, which also tied its record of 15 days of tidal flooding, has launched various initiatives, including localized efforts to build “resilient neighborhoods”, protecting subways by elevating ventilation grates and writing new guidelines for developers on how they can build more resilient structures.” (Inside Climate News)

It is important to compose a plan for rising oceans and work to constrain the long-haul pace and rise of sea level by drastically lessening the use of dangerous global warming emissions. Locations near coastal areas must measure the expenses and dangers of increasing the rising oceans, withdrawing from factors that will worsen the condition of rising sea levels, and better defend human infrastructure. (Union of Concerned Scientists) A dangerous atmospheric deviation such as global warming is imperative since it decides future atmosphere desires.

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