Rising Sea Levels In The United States

In a world divided by war, it is easy to overlook problems that affect all of mankind. The dramatic rise in ocean levels worldwide constitutes just that sort of problem. Although the fundamental problem of global warming has been given airtime and plenty of written-media coverage, the problem of rising sea levels seems to have met a

Miami, Florida experiences a great amount of natural disasters; however, one of the largest disasters Miami fears is affects of global change. Rising global temperatures scares most environmentalist in the Miami area, because rising temperatures results in rising sea levels. So, what is the problem with rising sea levels? Well, environmental specialist has made predictions that the rising sea levels could submerge the beaches of Miami.

Besides the direct effect of sea level rise, coastal flooding may also be a more prevalent and severe issue. For example, “sea level rise of two feet, without any changes in storms, would more than triple the frequency of dangerous coastal flooding throughout most of the Northeast” (Horton 374). The higher seas would increase the initial level, so that the flooding level would be much greater, especially during hurricanes. Recent hurricanes have become a good example of how much damage can occur to both humans and animals. For example, much of the coastal infrastructure is in danger of damage, which can affect commerce and the public’s health and safety: “In New York State, two feet of sea level rise is estimated...To flood or render unusable 212 miles of road, 77 miles of rail, 3,647 acres of airport facilities, and 539 acres of runways” (Horton 379). This loss of infrastructure may occur in every coastal Northeast state, especially in the south. In these southern Northeast states, the land is flat, which makes them easier to inundate with water. In addition to infrastructure, transportation is also at risk, with much of the major highways (I-95) and trains (Amtrak) at risk of coastal damage (Horton 380). More affected by sea level rise, ecosystems near water may be permanently damaged in upcoming years, and according to Rob Deconto, a climate scientist at University of

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, almost 40% of the population lives in high population-dense coastal areas. Around the world, eight of the world’s ten largest cities are situated near a coast, with about 250 million people living by a coast line less than 5 feet above sea level. It is projected that all of these people will be directly affected in some way by seawater rising in the future (Siegert, 2017). For the county of Orleans Parish, the rapid loss of coastal land is not a future scenario, but a current reality. Due to our unique geography, Louisiana loses about 16 square miles a year; the rapid erosion of Louisiana’s cost is only expected to accelerate over time. (Wernick, 2014).

According to the American Bar Association, "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that during the 20th century, sea levels rose some 5-9 inches throughout the world."(Gresham, Imwalle). This not only puts costal communities at risk of losing their homes, but also cause damage to infrastructures worth millions of dollars. The rise of sea level due to climate change has put Bay Area officials hard at work to come up with different plans on how to deal with this in the future.

Over the past 100 years, global sea levels have risen at astounding rates and only now are governments, business, and people beginning to understand just how negatively this will affect the world, not only now, but in the future as well. For many ports the growing issue of how rising sea levels, both locally and globally, is one that they do not have a plan in place to address it. The ports face a negative impact from damage to both their own facilities and equipment, but also the infrastructure in the areas surrounding the port. Financing any additions or upgrades to a port’s operations will be difficult for many reasons such as that the variability in the expected rise in sea level for the over the next century makes it difficult for accurate planning to be done.

“Approximately 25 million people live in an area vulnerable to coastal flooding” (Environmental Protection Agency). The coastal activities generate 58% of the national gross domestic product. Activities that are involved are marine transportation, fish cultivation, tourism and recreation. The coastal area hold species and habitats that are essential to the ecosystem and society. The climate change affects the storm surge and precipitation, water temperature and coral reefs and shellfish.

“The really big impacts come when you combine sea level rise with something like a big storm,” Copland told the Star. “If you live in Miami, New York, London, Amsterdam, Bangladesh, New Orleans — those major cities right on the coast — that’s where you can see some major effects.”

Since 1870, average global sea level has risen by about 8 inches. For the climate has getting increasingly warmer, the sea-level rise rate has accelerated.Average rate of annual sea-level rise from 1993 to 2010 was almost twice the rate from 1901-2010. Florida is the most vulnerable area of America.Miami,the most important city in Florida has the largest amount of assets exposing to sea level rise in the world.At the same time, the population exposing to sea level rise is fourth.By the year 2060, the sea levels along Miami’s coastline will rise,according to estimation, 9 inches to 2 feet. The estimated value of property along the Miami-Dade’s coastline is more than $14.7 billions,without consideration of infrastructure.According to the data from Climate Central analysis(the data based on from over ten federal agencies),the chart below shows the land below 3 feet in Miami is 1441 acres,the population is 19913 and property value is 37.05 billions. At 6 feet,110993 people(27.8% of total population of Miami) and $14,972 million are vulnerable in total.

Coastal flooding is caused due in part by the tidal cycles. High tides will be more prone to over wash into coastal communities. “Especially during spring and fall high tides and during sea swells due to seaward storms, strong onshore winds, and other causes” (Murley et al., 2008). Flooding can impact more than just roadways and other low-lying areas, it can also influence the storm water drainage systems. Most of Florida’s drain water systems are gravity feed. Meaning that an increase in sea level will reduce their effectiveness. This is due to there being more water in the storm drains. With more water in the drains there will be less water these systems can take in, causing more flooding. “Because climate change is expected to cause more intense rainstorms and hurricanes, sea-level rise will exacerbate the risk of inland flooding during intense rainfall, especially in low-lying interior flood plains such as exist in southeastern Florida”(Heimlich et al., 2009). “Sea-level rise of as little as 3 to 6 inches may begin to compromise the effectiveness of the area’s coastal flood-control structures, reducing their capacity by as much as 20% to 40% by 2030. By about 2040, 6 to 9 inches of sea-level rise may reduce their capacity by 65% to 70%. Most of these early impacts will be felt in low-lying coastal areas, such as southern Miami-Dade and the St. Johns River watershed” (Heimlich et al., 2009; Obeysekera, 2009) This increase in inefficiency due to sea level rise will cause 100 year flood events (1% chance of happening each year) to become 50 to 20 year events(2% to 5%

Today, sea levels are rising from the effects of global warming. There are two main causes of the rise of sea levels are thermal expansion and the increase of the melting of land-based ice (US Department of Commerce, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2008). Humans burning coal and oil and cutting down tropical forests can have increased atmospheric concentrations. Causing the earth’s temperature to rise, glaciers and ice sheets to melt, thermal expansion to appear, and sea levels to rise (Causes of Sea Level Rise: What the Science Tells Us, 2013). Due to rising sea levels, 13.1 million Americans must be displaced from their homes along the coast. Since 1880, the planet has warmed by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit

The rising sea levels are associated with almost every region of the U.S., besides those on tectonic plates or landlocked regions. According to the report, most regions have a large majority of their gross domestic product, GDP, and population living in costal counties. This is a problem for areas like the South East which has thirty six percent of it’s inhabitants living on the coast and thirty three percent of its GDP coming from its coasts. “In Florida, because of the porous limestone on which the major southern cities are built, even modest sea level rise comes at a significant economic cost.”1 Within the next half a century it reasonable to assume, based on the evidence from the report, that between fifteen and twenty three billion dollars of existing property in the South East will be submerged by the rising sea levels. Furthermore, there is a “1-in-100 chance that more than $682 billion in property will

In fact, the rise in global temperature will lead to melt massive pieces of the frozen areas in Antarctica and hence, the oceans will expand and the sea level will rise. As a result of the oceans’ expansion, large lands will start to disappear underwater. One of the recent examples of Climate Change is the giant 17-mile-long crack in Antarctica. In addition, the incident of flooding areas in the regions near to the oceans increased dramatically in the recent years. Also, there were a noticeable number of coasts and beaches partially disappeared due to the rise of water level. For instance, the rise of sea level due to Climate Change caused 16.9 square kilometers to disappear from the Mumbai coastal area in the 20 century (Nayak). The scientific data illustrated that the sea level will rise continuously in the next 50 years. For example, the sea level of south Florida coastal areas expected to rise from 14 to 16 inches by the year 2060 (Jacobs and Hogan). All the scientific facts contradict the idea that sea level rise is only a hoax and does not result from Climate Change effects.

Global warming has become a very big problem in our world today. It has created everything from bad air quality to water pollution in our world. These are just some of the consequences of global warming. However, I would like to speak on one topic as it regards to global warming. We have now discovered that global warming is causing our polar ice caps to melt thus creating rising sea levels. This has become a very large topic, and many scientists are scrambling to find solutions to stop this problem. If the rising sea level isn’t fixed we will see a massive amount of damage caused to our coasts, and coasts around the world for that matter. The consequences would also be dire for my home state of Florida. Florida is susceptible to rising sea levels because so much of the land is barely above sea level. The consequences in Florida would be detrimental. Consequences of rising sea levels could affect our economy, human quality of life, and the environment.

Flooding of coastal areas world-wide as the ocean levels rise: displacing hundreds of millions of people and burying a large portion of the world's prime agricultural lands.