GLOBAL

SEA LEVEL RISE

Global Sea level rise is an increasing problem as more extreme global warming

leads to ice melt and water expansion. Global warming is the overall heating of

the planet due to activities in the carbon cycle (movement of carbon within the
planet) and an increase in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

This diagram shows how carbon is transferred throughout the

hydrosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and atmosphere through

many processes. These include respiration, photosynthesis,

combustion, volcanism, diffusion, dissolution, and

decomposition. Global warming is caused by changes in the

carbon cycle and greenhouse gasses trapping heat within the

atmosphere. . The form carbon takes within the atmosphere is

carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas. This CO2

doesn’t just stay in the atmosphere, it also cycles through the

hydrosphere by being absorbed by the the oceans and dissolving

into the water.

This graph shows how the amount of the 5 main

greenhouse gasses has been increasing within the

atmosphere over the past few decades, the

abundance of each, and how they are all

contributing to rising heat temperatures in the

atmosphere. These gasses include Carbon dioxide,

methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gasses. For

millions of years, the exchange of CO2 between the

surface of the ocean and the atmosphere remained

constant. In the past 150 years, humans have

dumped into the atmosphere about 40 gigatons of

emissions of heat-trapping gasses each year from

the burning of fossil fuels and land-use change—or

the equivalent to 252 million blue whales. As a

result, the ocean has absorbed about 29 percent of

this additional carbon. As greenhouse gasses trap

more energy from the sun, the oceans are

absorbing more heat causing the water to expand,

resulting in an increase in sea surface

temperatures and rising sea level.

So now that we know what is causing sea

level rise, how is it effecting the planet?

How is it effecting us? Well we have already

experienced and increased amount of sea

level rise in recent years. We can see in this

graph the gradual rise in sea level in inches

over the past 125 years by decade, and how

in recent years this has been increasing.

When averaged over all of the world’s

oceans, sea level has risen at a rate of

roughly six-tenths of an inch per decade

since 1880. The rate of increase has

accelerated in recent years to more than an

inch per decade. Changes in sea level

relative to the land vary by region. Along the

U.S. coastline, sea level has risen the most

along the Mid-Atlantic coast and parts of

the Gulf coast, where several stations

registered ncreases of more than 8 inches

between 1960 and 2021. Clearly this is a

very concerning problem, especially

because this rise in sea level is expected to

have more devastating effects than what is

already happening, as 80% of islands and 4.3

million acres of mainland are expected to be

completely submerged by water by 2050.

Many coastal populations are in danger,

especially because 82% of major cities are

along the coast. And all of this sea level rise

can be directly attributed to the increase in

CO2 within the carbon cycle and the

greenhouse effect caused by i

Our Call to Action:

While governments and nations should be working to help through DAC technology(tech

that extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere and stores it in deep geological

formations), reforestation, eventually evacuating coastal towns, and use of better/less

harmful resources, we can all do our part as well. Though it might seem small, doing things
like driving electric cars, using other methods of transportation, and using less electricity

within the home can all help reduce your carbon footprint and reduce the amount of CO2

entering the atmosphere. This can help slow down sea level rise and eventually stop it.