Handout

Sea Level Rise

About Sea Level Rise:
Sea level rise is when the sea gets higher and floods many countries.
- observed significant sea level rise since the middle of the 19th century
- during the 20th century alone, the sea level has risen 17 cm
Causes:
There are two main causes for sea level rise:
. Thermal Expansion:
- due to the climate change, the water in the oceans gets warmer and therefore, it expands
-thermal expansion has contributed about 2.5 cm of the sea level rise during the second half
of the 20th century
-Assessments of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) say that thermal
expansion will lead to a sea level rise of about 17 to 28 cm during the 21th century
. Melting of glaciers, ice sheets and ice caps
-less certain than the thermal expansion, scientists arent sure how much effect on the sea
level rise it will have
-glaciers cover about 10 per cent of the worlds land area
-recent studies show that the movement of ice towards the ocean from both of the major ice
sheets has increased significantly
-for example, the speed of the movement of some of the ice sheets in greenland has doubled
within a few years
Consequences:
- even a small rise of the sea level will have a large negative effect on the nature
- sea level rise of 10-59cm is expected over the next hundred years (prognoses are very
variable)
- because of the expansion of the oceans countries will get flooded
- low lying countries like the netherlands could sink after only 1m sea level rise
- coastal cities could flood more often -> therefore many people will lose their home and
business
- animals will lose their habitats
- coral reefs will get destroyed
- beaches will have to be replaced
- people have to protect natural shoreline buffers like sand dunes and wetlands
- they also have to improve storm drainage systems

Solutions:
As sea level rise is mainly caused by global warming which again is caused by the
greenhouse effect, the only way to really stop it is to find a solution for the greenhouse effect.
Preventive steps of the netherlands and other countries that are threatened by the sea level
rise: building of dykes, flood barriers and pumps->expensive, not in poor countries like
Bangladesh which lies only 6 metres above sea level