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Rising Sea Level a Danger to Coastal Areas
Over the past several decades the Earth has been warming at an alarming rate. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed faster than anywhere else on Earth within the last fifty years. The temperatures on the peninsula are higher than they have been in the last 1800 years. This has caused melting of the ice caps, which is an environmental disaster.
The sea levels around the world used to rise about one millimeter a year and are now rising at a rate of three millimeters and accelerating. The U.N. panel projected that sea levels would rise 28-43 cm by the year 2100. This may not seem significant, but consider the fact that many countries are already below sea level. If this rise occurs it will have drastic results.
The reason for these melting ice caps is global warming and the greenhouse effect. The only way to avoid drastically rising sea levels is to sharply cut back on consumption of fossil fuels. The more people rely on these energy sources, the more the global temperature will rise, and the rate of melting ice caps will increase. There is now a possibility of an ice free summer in the Arctic, and if this were to occur polar bears would be extinct in a century. The ice sheets on Earth hold ninety percent of the freshwater of Earth's surface. What would happen if all that water was unleashed on the Earth?
For further information:
www.enn.com
www.nationalgeographic.com
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