Climate change has become a significant policy issue debated by the entire global community. Through out earth’s existence, climate change has been a part of the evolutionary process. Earth’s climate goes through a sequence of glacier and inter-glacier periods. These are periods where the earth heats up and global warming takes over the land. Then, there will be a period of an ice age, where snow and ice encompass most of the land. Recent studies provide evidence to this theory and additionally show that the world is in a current warming period. Dealing with a warming period, a school of thought argues that humans are the primary factor of the rising sea levels. An opposing argument tries to prove that the current situation of sea level changes is as the result of a natural cycle of warming and cooling. Regardless of the perspective on this issue, all parties have a common understanding that the ocean level is in fact rising. Around the world, evidence supports the fact that the world is going through a warming period. From the melting glaciers to the lack of snowfall, the warming period is upon us and the largest effect is the coastal lines around the world. As far back as records hold, the ocean level has been on a slow but steady ride. But towards recent history, for either side of the climate argument, the steady increase has grown rapidly even shockingly. It has already impacted major cities around the world. Scientist at National Geographic have found some
In present day, the ocean is warmer now than it has been in the past 50 years. In the article, " Signs of Climate Change", it says that in 1960 the average ocean tempature change was -.3 degrees but in 2010 the average tempature change in the ocean was .6 degrees. Where I live the tempature is still continuing to rise more and more each year. With warmer ocean tempature comes rising sea level. In present day the sea level has rose by 7 inches in the past 100 years. In 2100 th tempature is around 15 inches higher than it is in present day. Both of these things are causing more tropical storms to happen and is also making the beach less and less
Sea level has risen 3.4 mm per year due to climate change. This can have devastating effects on humans, plants and animals, and their habitats. Climate change has become a colossal problem considering it can leave countless humans stranded or starving, that are in need of assistance. It has also caused distrust or rifts between countries over who caused it and whose responsibility it is to pay for the damages it has caused. The economy of places on earth will be suspected to plummet as a result of rising sea levels and temperatures provoking animals to relocate and countries to lose their major exports, or suffer from the increase in prices for their imported goods. The U.N. believes that this is problem is in need of a solution. The world
Another factor of ascending sea levels is the increase in temperatures (3). Eissa and Zaki implies that “a considerable number of many species will be threatened with a continuous increase in sea levels to a certain point that the animal or species could become extinct” (The impact of global climatic…” 2). Sea levels are rising at very accelerated rates, and until the water keep rising, they will become very harmful to the human population and many marine organisms. However, increasing temperatures is one of the main factors of climate change. Johansen insists that “the warming of the world’s oceans has not only affected the animals who live above the surface, but also the ones who live below” (“Marine Life…” 1). Increasing temperatures are mostly caused by many human activities such as the release of fossil fuels emissions and greenhouse gases. The two main processes that cause increasing temperatures are Climate Change and the Greenhous effect. These can be very harmful to the marine population and permanently extinct them. According to recent studies, NOAA has discovered that seawater temperatures are increasing by about 0.1 Celsius, and many organisms confronted with this change could be in great danger (NOAA 2). In addition to increasing temperatures and sea levels rising, another factor would be ocean acidification. Global Issues portrays that” ocean acidification is caused by substantial amounts of carbon dioxide which is caused by greenhouse emissions” (Climate
The Sea Level has increased over the past 200 years as average global temperatures have increased. The rise is due to two factors, the freshwater being added to the oceans from ice melt in the cryosphere, and the thermal expansion of the oceans due to rises in sea temperature. The sea level has risen 6 to 8 inches in the past 100 years. It is predicted to rise another 50 to 90 centimeters in the next century. As the sea level rises it’s jeopardizing rapidly growing coastal communities, which causes evacuation in some areas causing people to lose their homes. Sea level is the effect
The combination of these and other trends was an estimated average sea-level increase of 1.5mm per year between 1961 and 2003, which reached 2.4mm per year in the decade from 1993 to 2003. The decades prior to this trend showed only minor fluctuations in sea-level, suggesting that the current rate exceeds what could be caused by natural cycles. While the exact impact of rising oceans is difficult to determine, it is certain that the consequences will include some degree of flooding, integration of salt water into water tables, and a loss of land due to coastal erosion and submersion.6
The rise of sea level and global warming has become a much more serious problem right now. This problem has drawn international attention, because higher sea levels in the future would cause great damages not only in coastal area, but also in various parts of the world.We have already seen thousands of people call and lead people to protect our environment and eliminate the emission of greenhouse gases. We could lose our planet as well based on what we did. We really have to take action to prevent the dangerous outcomes happen in the future, otherwise the more people’s life would be inflected and
Since the 1950s, the amount of heat stored in the ocean has significantly increased. Ocean heat content determines sea surface temperature, it also affects sea level and currents. An overall average of the world’s oceans. Since 1880 sea level has risen at a rate of roughly six-tenths of an inch per decade. In recent years, the rate of increase has increased more rapidly to more than an inch per decade. Sea level has risen the most with an increase of more than 8 inches between 1960 and 2015, along parts of the Gulf coast and the Mid-Atlantic coast. However, sea level has decreased relative to the land in parts of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
Climate change is a global issue that is under an endless debate for its causes. The increase in the global mean annual surface air temperature in the previous century by 0.75C (IPCC 2007) in coincidence with the excess of the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere from 289 to 353 ppm (Lean et al. 1995) by burning fossil fuels support the human-induced hypothesis of climate change. On the other hand, the protestors of the natural origin of climate change build their argument on the variations of solar radiation and volcanic activities (Rind and Overpeck 1993). Meehl et al. (2005) report that the global warming will continue in this century, even if the greenhouse gasses are stabilized. This reveals that the climate change is
One of the first indicators of global warming when it was first discovered and discussed was the acknowledgment of rising sea levels. In many climate change and apocalypse movies the rising of the ocean is the downfall of the population of the planet. The topic about the rising sea levels was not always indisputable. When the topic of climate change was first brought up it was mostly known as global warming and connected to the greenhouse effect. The notion of oceans raising above sea level was once widely seen as controversial. New York Times articles from 1980s until now show the development of the debate on rising sea levels through time and the the further development of science. There has been a change in The New York Times reporting on the issues of rising sea levels caused by the climate change from doubt about it in the 1980’s to confirmation of the problem in 2010’s.
Who has not listened to talk about climate change at least once in life? It has been a long process which has its development in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to Bodansky in The History of the Climate Change Regime (23). Today, climate change is a critical issue, and scientists are concerned about trying to find out a solution or at least to minimize its effects. However, how do we know climate change is happening? Compelling evidence is sea level rise, global temperature rise, extreme events, and ocean acidification among others. Ocean acidification is stressing out marine life and ocean conditions.
As we arrive into another new year the same environmental issues plague us, waiting for more to be made to change the way things are done. One particular issue is the rise of or current sea levels, and even more troublesome the fact that the rate is going faster than scientist expected and how much of a impact it will have on land and aquatic life. Studies show that scientist have tracked the seas levels throughout time but were unbothered due to the fact that the increase was by very minute changes. Scientist first began to realize the rise of sea levels during the 20th century, where concern began to increase. “Records and research shows that sea level rise has been rising at a rate of 0.04 to 0.1 inches per year (“Is sea level” 2016). I believe that sea level rise is just one of the many causes of global warming. But more specifically sea level is said to be caused by “thermal expansion (caused by the warming of the oceans (since water expands as it warms) and land based ice (such as glaciers) due to increased melting)”(Gaffin, 2002) to me this is something to fear because it’s something that could directly affect people just like me, where we normally would see serious flooding. There are many Americans who live in coastal states whose futures in their current and children’s residences are greatly threatened
Sea-level rise is becoming a major, subtitle, problem not many people are aware about. Some people might believe that sea-level rise is a myth because it relates to global warming. However, there are physical changes happening which is proof sea-level rise happening and it is a major problem.
Global climate change has become a hot topic in recent years. Countries have recently been working together to improve air quality, water systems, and waste management. A large contribution to our climate issue, is how governments and companies release chemicals, and waste into the environment. This law would allow for the people and the government to step in, and make sure companies follow through in keeping the environment safe.
Those who agree that global warming is highly influenced by human activity have the support of 97% of climate experts. (“Scientific Consensus”) When people try to argue that global warming is not man-made, their arguments include changes within the ocean, the extinction of species, and weather changes. According to the EPA, oceans temperatures have been increasing since the 1950s. The article also points out that since 1880, the sea levels have been increasing about 6/10 of an inch each decade. However in recent decades, it has increased to more than one inch per decade. (“Climate Change Indicators: Ocean”) This is due to factors such as Earth trapping heat which warms the ocean and melts ice
Climate change is the acceleration in regular surface temperatures on Earth. Even small increments in Earth’s temperature provoked by climate change can have serious effects. The Earth’s median temperature has gone up 1.4 ºF over the past century and is awaited to rise as much as 11.5 ºF over the next (Banerjee, 2015). That might not look like a lot, but the average temperature during the last ice Age was about 4 ºF lower than it is today. The climate of the planet is constantly changing. This change is not something new; it is a very old concept, perhaps since the birth of the universe. The factors or deduction for the climate change can be split into two sides. One side is of the opinion that this is a natural course that will and has to develop, whereas the other side believes that the change has taken place because of the human activities on the earth. Climate change is induced by man’s carelessness and lack of interest. We need to make a change in order to provide a safe environment for future generations.