And there's no stopping it. But that's to happen at the turn of the century there about. Still a long time away–85 years. If I didn't care about global warming, I wouldn't because 85 years is way past my lifetime but I care because I love this amazing planet we are on.
This quantum of sea level rise is not new many scientists have been warning of this for decades. However for most of us–so what? Life goes on as usual as it has been for decades. I am not living very far from the sea and the sea is certainly not at my doorstep–so what? Even if we want to do anything at all to make a difference, what can we do? Electric cars are still too expensive and too few and charging stations are almost non-existent; at the most we can recycle most everything we use. Really though, to make a difference in carbon emission how much difference can a population make if our electricity relies on coal or gas or diesel. So long as there are people who still worry about the price of crude being too low because they are not going to make much profit off of it and governments are committed to crude oil economics and consumption we have no choice but to prepare for the sea knocking at our doorstep if we live too close to it.
To be practical and pragmatic, lets face it our addiction to crude oil–from 6 litre V12 super cars to cheap coal fired energy is not going to abate in the near future. So lets roll up our sleeves and try to get a picture of what we will have to be contending with, with our seas.
No. 1 on my list, the tiny island nations that are already in trouble. Here is a collection of Youtubes to put things in perspective.
No. 2, NASA has made the numbers on the level of sea rise official–one to three feet within the turn of this century, with higher probability that it will be closer to three feet. You can read all about it on JPL's website here. They are confident about these numbers from observing the trend of sea level rise in the last 30 years which are based on very accurate satellite data. An interesting fact I learned from this article is that a third of sea level increase is attributed to thermal expansion of water–as the average sea temperature rises its volume increases correspondingly or like metal expanding when it is heated. The remaining two thirds is as is widely publicised, sea ice and glacial melt which is already very evident as polar bears and arctic whales can testify to if they could speak.
Basically the gist of the article is that portends for a 1 meter (about 3 feet) sea level rise minimum is optimistic at best. So lets assume that this is going to be the conservative reality in the year 2100, this would mean a 10 cm rise every decade from 2000. Thus far we have reached 15 cm and people in the Maldives, Tuvalu and Kiribati are very concerned. It is likely that by 2030–30cm sea level rise, these island paradises may be uninhabitable if all their ground water supply gets contaminated by sea water and by 2050–50cm sea level rise, these nations may be no more than sand shoals with their population living in other countries. 20 to 35 years from now these youth in Kiribati in the video above will most likely be telling the world a sad story living as some of the first climate refugees from a host country.
No. 3, Watch Obama speak on global warming–published 31 August 2015. The talk was no where as popular of the recent MTV VMAs on Youtube, perhaps it should be at least as popular, then again Global Warming is as yet a popular subject. Even Hollywood hasn't picked up on it, perhaps a futuristic movie about a new watery world with less land, less fresh water and less food would do it. Anyway at least Obama is pushing the facts up the hill. Watch the video if you want to understand the current state of affairs with regard to climate change in a nutshell.
So what does a seemingly innocuous 1 meter rise in sea level mean for the rest of us who are not living in low lying small island nations? Presently at least we don't experience any difference from how things had been so far? I've been scouring the internet for information on what a 1 meter rise actually translates to since the number is an average and the sea level is affected locally by tides. I will post my findings in the next post.
• Best Videos on Youtube on the Science of Climate Change, Best Info Analysis and Fixes
This quantum of sea level rise is not new many scientists have been warning of this for decades. However for most of us–so what? Life goes on as usual as it has been for decades. I am not living very far from the sea and the sea is certainly not at my doorstep–so what? Even if we want to do anything at all to make a difference, what can we do? Electric cars are still too expensive and too few and charging stations are almost non-existent; at the most we can recycle most everything we use. Really though, to make a difference in carbon emission how much difference can a population make if our electricity relies on coal or gas or diesel. So long as there are people who still worry about the price of crude being too low because they are not going to make much profit off of it and governments are committed to crude oil economics and consumption we have no choice but to prepare for the sea knocking at our doorstep if we live too close to it.
To be practical and pragmatic, lets face it our addiction to crude oil–from 6 litre V12 super cars to cheap coal fired energy is not going to abate in the near future. So lets roll up our sleeves and try to get a picture of what we will have to be contending with, with our seas.
No. 1 on my list, the tiny island nations that are already in trouble. Here is a collection of Youtubes to put things in perspective.
No. 2, NASA has made the numbers on the level of sea rise official–one to three feet within the turn of this century, with higher probability that it will be closer to three feet. You can read all about it on JPL's website here. They are confident about these numbers from observing the trend of sea level rise in the last 30 years which are based on very accurate satellite data. An interesting fact I learned from this article is that a third of sea level increase is attributed to thermal expansion of water–as the average sea temperature rises its volume increases correspondingly or like metal expanding when it is heated. The remaining two thirds is as is widely publicised, sea ice and glacial melt which is already very evident as polar bears and arctic whales can testify to if they could speak.
Basically the gist of the article is that portends for a 1 meter (about 3 feet) sea level rise minimum is optimistic at best. So lets assume that this is going to be the conservative reality in the year 2100, this would mean a 10 cm rise every decade from 2000. Thus far we have reached 15 cm and people in the Maldives, Tuvalu and Kiribati are very concerned. It is likely that by 2030–30cm sea level rise, these island paradises may be uninhabitable if all their ground water supply gets contaminated by sea water and by 2050–50cm sea level rise, these nations may be no more than sand shoals with their population living in other countries. 20 to 35 years from now these youth in Kiribati in the video above will most likely be telling the world a sad story living as some of the first climate refugees from a host country.
No. 3, Watch Obama speak on global warming–published 31 August 2015. The talk was no where as popular of the recent MTV VMAs on Youtube, perhaps it should be at least as popular, then again Global Warming is as yet a popular subject. Even Hollywood hasn't picked up on it, perhaps a futuristic movie about a new watery world with less land, less fresh water and less food would do it. Anyway at least Obama is pushing the facts up the hill. Watch the video if you want to understand the current state of affairs with regard to climate change in a nutshell.
So what does a seemingly innocuous 1 meter rise in sea level mean for the rest of us who are not living in low lying small island nations? Presently at least we don't experience any difference from how things had been so far? I've been scouring the internet for information on what a 1 meter rise actually translates to since the number is an average and the sea level is affected locally by tides. I will post my findings in the next post.
• Best Videos on Youtube on the Science of Climate Change, Best Info Analysis and Fixes
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