Question+2

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 Question 2: What can cause sea level to rise? Is it natural? Are human activities responsible for sea level rise? Question 2 answers from MonaLisa and Bridget: ======

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 When the air temperature heats up, it causes ice sheets to melt and causes sea levels to rise which causes flooding. Ocean temperatures rise and fall as sea levels rise and as ice on land shrinks and disappears. It isn't natural for sea levels to rise this much in so little time. This is the first time that humans can actually see the environment changing dramatically before their eyes. This isn't natural because environmental changes shouldn't be able to be seen by the naked eye like they are now. It is unnatural for our environment to change this quickly. Some of human activities are responsible for sea levels to rise because they are not aware of what they are doing. These are some of the things that we do: ground water mining, deforestation desertification, wetland filling or drainage, surface water diversion, and not recycling. [] []====== Question 2 answers from Tyler and Alvin:  Tyler and I did question 2 it was about some causes that made sea levels rise and how that can affect the world. Some of the things that Tyler and I found out are sea level raising it has been rising for the past 10,000 years. Also sea level is rising due to global warming. Coastlines will be inundated, and disasters will occur in coastal areas throughout the world. Who could ever forget Al Gore’s documentary showing us the World Trade Center Memorial under water due to sea level rise. Global average sea level rise is at an average rate of 1.8 [1.3 to 2.3] mm per year from 1961 to 2003. The rate increased rapidly from 1993 to 2003: about 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm per year. By 2100, sea levels will have risen two feet because of climate change. Because of these two feet most of the wetlands will not survive. During the last glacial period, sea level dropped 400 feet as water was tied up in ice, and as we have moved out of the cold glacial period, sea levels have recovered.   Alvin and I did questions two; it was about some cause that made sea levels rise and how that effects the world. Some of the things that Alvin and I found out are sea levels are raising due to global warming, coastlines will be inundated, and natural disasters will occur in coastal areas throughout the world. Who could ever forget Al Gore’s documentary showing us the World Trade Center Memorial under water due to sea level rise. It has been rising for the past 10,000 years. During the last glacial period, sea level dropped 400 feet as water was tied up in ice, and as we have moved out of the cold glacial period, sea level has recovered. Global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 [1.3 to 2.3] mm per year over 1961 to 2003. The rate was faster over 1993 to 2003: about 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm per yea. Some cause is pollution to water. Also cars buses airplanes and other vehicles are bad population to the atmosphere. Also electricity is a big harm to the world. The way to solve this is, I think more people need to go green recycle more, people should build more windmills and get solar panels these are all good things that can help reduce sea levels rising because global warming is the cause for glaciers to melt and if we don't take action soon we will be under water.  More than half of the Chesapeake Bay's beaches and the state's treasured Smith and Tangier islands could be submerged within the next hundred years if sea levels rise about 2 feet, a new study shows. A report released today by the National Wildlife Federation details the effects of sea-level rise on the Chesapeake Bay. If global warming does indeed lead to rising sea levels as predicted, a sea. []  The rates of sea-level rise are important considerations in the restoration of the city of New Orleans and the wetlands that protect it. New Orleans is sinking two inches per decade, and it is anticipated that it will sink roughly one meter in the next 100 years relative to mean sea level. The ocean is also rising. During the last century, the ocean rose one to two millimeters per year. TYLER and ALVIN use sea level to rise? Is it natural? Are human activities responsible for sea level rise?

<span style="text-align: center; line-height: 115%; display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; msoansilanguage: EN-GB;">Origins and Causes Based upon the preponderance of archaeological and geological evidence obtained from so many sites around the world, members of the earth science community are in universal agreement that the global sea level from between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago—the time of the last glacial maximum—was between 100 and 125 meters below what it is today. An analysis of historical and current tide gauge data for the past 100 or so years, together with the more accurate altimetric satellite data that has only been available to the scientific community since the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992 (and followed by the launches of the JASON 1 in 2001 and the JASON 2 in 2008), has revealed that sea level during the 20th century rose by approximately 8 inches or an average of 2 mm per year, and that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Further, although scientists currently cannot agree on a specific projected rate of sea level rise for the 21st century, there does appear to be consensus that the rate of seal level rise will continue to accelerate well beyond the year 2100. <span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial;">Approximately 50% of the sea level rise since the year 1900 is attributable to global warming. Increasing atmospheric temperature has resulted in the melting of glaciers and continental ice masses, which has in turn released significant amounts of freshwater into the Earth’s oceans. Additionally, this increase in global atmospheric temperature has caused the salt water in the oceans to expand in a process referred to as thermal expansion, further increasing ocean volumes. (NOAA Tides and Currents) The role of thermal expansion is quite significant because an increase in the average ocean temperature (top to bottom) of only a few hundredths of a degree per year is all that is required to raise the sea level a couple of millimeters per year. (Douglas, B. C.) Average global temperatures (measured at sea level) have increased by about 1.4° F (.8° C) in the last 100 years. The significance of this increase is apparent when we consider that the world has only warmed by 7° F (4° C) since the peak of the last ice age 21,000 years ago. The timing of this sharp increase in the rate of global warming appears to perfectly coincide with the sharp increases in both world population and carbon dioxide emissions that are the direct result of our modern, energy hungry way of life.
 * By Nicole Phelan - ACS Cobham**

The other 50% or so of the total observed sea level rise, referred to as “sea level enigma,” is often explained by scientists as the culmination of localized tectonic events and/or isostatic changes, as well as some possible melting of the polar glacial ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica. Tectonic plate movement, earthquakes and volcanoes can instantly or over time result in local changes in sea level due to changes in the elevation of the ocean floor and adjacent land. Isostatic changes occur when land either sinks or rises as the result of large loads—from either natural sources (e.g. glacial ice load, accumulating sediment) or human activity (e.g. mining, water storage as behind a dam)—being added or removed. It is somewhere between difficult and impossible with current technology to determine or predict with any certainty the effect that any local subsidence or emergence of the land will have on global sea levels.

See my works cited for sources.