How Sea Level Rise Due to

Climate Change Will Affect

Humanity

The Climate Project

Grant Duffey
Table of Contents
Contents 1

Abstract 2

How Climate Change is Causing Sea Levels to Rise 2

How Climate Change is Going to Affect People 4

- Who Will Be Affected the Most? 5

What Can Be Done to Mitigate the Effects 7

Conclusion 8

References 9

Table of Figures

Figure 1 Global Sea Level Projection 3

Figure 2 Sea Level Per Emission Pathway 4

Figure 3 Dhaka Map 6

1
Abstract

Climate change is humanity’s effect on our environment that is causing

temperatures and weather patterns to rapidly change across the globe. As a

consequence of this, the ice caps on Earth are melting, which causes the sea levels

to rise. As sea levels rise, people, particularly impoverished people, will have their

homes and communities destroyed. Not only will places familiar to us like

California be severely damaged, many southeast asian countries like Indonesia will

be completely underwater in the next hundred years. We must do everything within

our power to mitigate the inevitable effects of climate change in order to protect

these people. This can be done through rigorous policy change, and quickly

providing direct economic support to the people who will need it most. This

economic support should largely come from large oil companies like Exxon Mobil

who are a primary contributor to why Climate Change is a problem in the first

place.

How Climate Change is Causing Sea Levels to Rise

Due to the rapid industrialization of the past several centuries, humanity has had a

larger impact on the world around them than ever before. Machinery has to use

resources like coal in order to be able to produce goods we use for our everyday

2
lives. While this has benefited us in many ways, it has had disastrous unforeseen

consequences. Burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases

into the air, which causes rays of heat from the sun to be trapped inside Earth’s

atmosphere. With the excess heat, the Earth’s average temperature rises. This

produces many problems, particularly unpredictable, dangerous weather and sea

level rise (National Geographic Society).

Figure 1 (Lindsey)

The sea level rise is due to the ice caps on the north and south pole of the Earth,

alongside the many glacier deposits around the world, beginning to melt. This

melting has been going on for decades at this point in time. The water that comes

from those glaciers displaces into the ocean. The displacement of that water has

3
gone on continuously, and has ultimately caused the sea level rise (National

Geographic Society).

How Climate Change is Going to Affect People

Climate change has already begun to show some of its adverse effects, and it is

only going to get worse over the next century. Around the world, areas holding two

hundred million people are guaranteed to fall below sea level (“Report”). That

number is being optimistic. If significant action is not taken and humanity is under

a high emission scenario, six hundred and forty million people will be in danger

due to the rising sea levels. That is just under ten percent of the entire human

population (“Report”).

Figure 2 (Lindsey)

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To give a picture of the catastrophic financial cost of all of this, fifty billion dollars

worth of property in California are at risk of being destroyed by floods over the

next hundred years (“Sea”). At the current pace of climate change, after the next

hundred years, those numbers will double (“Sea”). For certain cities, particularly

Miami and New Orleans, there has already been a point of no return reached.

These communities are going to be lost, and nothing can be done to save them

(“Sea”). However, this does not even scratch the surface of who will be affected

the most by rising sea levels.

Who Will Be Affected the Most?

It is estimated that a hundred million people who live in developing countries will

be impoverished by climate change by 2030 (McCarthy). This does not even

include the people who are already living in abject poverty. All in all, the areas of

the world that will have the most flooding and infrastructure issues are those with a

high population of impoverished people. For some of these communities, the

situation has already become desperate. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, has

already proposed a “managed retreat” plan, meaning that the city is planning to

relocate to the North of the country. This move will displace ten million people on

top of those in the slums who are already facing the effects of flooding in the area

(McCarthy). Jakarta is only one of many cities in southeast asia that will have to be

5
prepared for oncoming flooding and general sea level rise. Bangladesh’s capital,

Dhaka, will nearly be completely under water in the next coming decades

(“Report”).

Figure 3 (McCarthy)

The situation has gotten to the point where displaced people need to be categorized

as “climate refugees”. Limited natural resources, salt water destroying crops and

drinking water, and communities being destroyed are pushing people to find new

homes elsewhere, in countries that might be less affected by rising sea levels

(United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). This will only continue to be a

problem as time goes on.

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What Can Be Done to Mitigate the Effects

There are actions that governments can take to help prevent future catastrophe. To

help promote food cultivation, countries can provide financial support to farmers

and distribute more resistant and nutrient rich seeds (McCarthy). Also, funding can

be given to reforestation and coastline reparation committees which can help aid

certain communities from future climate disasters (McCarthy).

However, the bulk of the responsibility lies on major corporations to change their

policies to more climate friendly ones. Not only would this be the right thing to do

morally, but financially as well. The fossil fuel industry by its very nature cannot

last forever, and there is a lot of money to be made by making the switch to clean

energy. The industry surrounding clean energy sources is estimated to add twenty

six trillion dollars to the global economy just by 2030, and that number will only

rise as conditions get worse (McCarthy).

While it cannot be stopped entirely at this point, we must do everything in our

power to lessen the horrors that will come from the rising sea levels. Even further,

we must urge these companies to take responsibility for their actions, and hold

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them financially accountable as well. While local governments of these low lying

areas should of course be supporting their communities as they combat climate

change, they should be greatly helped financially by companies like Exxon Mobil

for putting them in this position in the first place. That is the only way that this

situation can potentially be rectified.

Conclusion

There is not much time left in this matter. If action is not taken quickly, these low

lying communities will be absolutely ravaged by the rising sea levels and changing

weather caused by climate change. If we work together to hold the companies

accountable for their actions, on top of local community efforts, the future does not

have to be as grim as we think.

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References

Lindsey, Rebecca. Climate Change: Global Sea Level, NOAA, 14 Aug. 2020,

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-chang

e-global-sea-level.

McCarthy, Joe. “Why Climate Change and Poverty Are Inextricably Linked.”

Global Citizen, 19 Feb. 2020,

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/climate-change-is-connected-to-poverty/.

National Geographic Society. “Climate Change.” National Geographic Society, 27 Mar. 2019,

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-change/.

“Report: Flooded Future: Global Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise Worse Than

Previously Understood.” Climate Central, 29 Oct. 2019,

https://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-flooded-future-global-vulnerability-to-sea-
level-rise-worse-than-previously-understood.

“Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Health.” Climate Health Connect, 2016,

https://climatehealthconnect.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SeaLevelRise.pdf.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Climate Change and Disaster Displacement.”

UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency,

https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/climate-change-and-disasters.html.