Sea rise to continue for centuries

Sea rise to continue for centuries

Part of: Prelims and GS-III – Economy; Environment 

Context The researchers have warned that even if humanity caps global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, seas will rise for centuries to come and swamp cities currently home to half-a-billion people.

Key takeaways 

• If temperature rises another half-degree above that benchmark, an additional 200 million of today’s urban dwellers would regularly find themselves knee-deep in sea water and more vulnerable to devastating storm surges.
• Worst hit in any scenario will be Asia, which accounts for nine of the 10 mega-cities at highest risk.
• Land home to more than half the populations of Bangladesh and Vietnam fall below the long-term high tide line. 
  • Built-up areas in China, India and Indonesia would also face devastation.
• Most projections for sea level rise run to the end of the century. But oceans will continue to swell for hundreds of years beyond 2100 — fed by melting ice sheets, heat trapped in the ocean and the dynamics of warming water — no matter how aggressively greenhouse gas emissions are drawn down.

Do you know?

• Sea Level rise (SLR) takes place by three primary factors:  
  • Thermal Expansion 
  • Melting Glaciers  
  • Loss of Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets.