Rise is sea level can best be understood as a gradual increase in mean sea level across the globe

owing to thermal expansion of water, melting of Polar ice, ice sheets and glaciers on land.1 This
thermal expansion of water and melting of ice in turn owes its origin to anthropogenically induced
global climate change.

Phenomena like tectonic effects, subsidence of the land, tides, currents, storms etc. might create
local variations in the average global rise in sea level.2 It is estimated that for an increase of one
degree Celsius global temperature, we might experience a sea level rise of approximately of 2.3
Meters or 7.5 feet.3

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policymakers, AR5, 2014, predicts
that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century, very likely at a faster rate
than observed from 1971 to 2010.4

The immediate danger of rising sea level is the inundation of low lying coastal areas, an increase in
their susceptibility to storms resulting in such areas becoming less habitable.5

A general estimate puts around 3 billion people living within a radius of 200 kilometers of coast lines
across the globe 6 and a one meter rise in mean sea level is predicted to displace around 60 million
people globally.7 Apart from this many nation states across the globe the globe are typically
collection of Islands or lack a high land where the population might retreat to, hence posing a
problem of wiping out of certain nation states from the face of the earth. An increase in salt content
in the low lying areas due to flooding might adversely affect plant and animal life of the region.

1
Shennan, I., 2013. Sea Level Studies: Overview. In: Elias SA, Mock J (eds) Encyclopedia of Quaternary
Science (Second Edition). Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands, pp 369-376. ISBN 978-0-444-53643-3
2
Fischlin; et al., "Section 4.4.9: Oceans and shallow seas – Impacts", in IPCC AR4 WG2 2007, Chapter 4:
Ecosystems, their Properties, Goods and Services, p. 234
3
Anders Levermann, Peter U. Clark, Ben Marzeion, Glenn A. Milne, David Pollard, Valentina Radic, and
Alexander Robinson (13 June 2013). "The multimillennial sea-level commitment of global
warming". PNAS. 110: 13745–13750.
4
Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Fifth Assessment Report, AR5 (Report). Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. 2014.
5
Clive Schofield, Imaginary Islands ? Options To Preserve Maritime Jurisdictional Entitlements And Provide
Stable Maritime Limits In The Face Of Coastal Instablility.
6
Walker, G. and King, D., The Hot Topic: How to Tackle Global Warming and Still Keep the Lights On,
(London:Bloomsbury, 2008): 57.
7
Ananthaswamy, A. (2009) “Going, going…”, New Scientist, 4 July 2009, 26, at 30-31.