The Impact of Sea Level Rise Due to Climate Change Research Paper

The Impact of Sea Level Rise Due to Climate Change - Research Paper Example Global climate change has been attributed to natural as well as anthropogenic agents. Climate change is responsible for the rise in sea level in two major ways. To begin with, rising temperature on land causes land ice, to melt. Land ice is melting faster than ever before as a result of increasing temperatures. According to Cazenave1 and Cozannet (2014), as land ice shrinks by melting away, the melt water drains into oceans and seas of the world. Consequently, the sea level rises and water overflow the banks. Also, climate change results into rising level of the sea because of rising temperatures, which cause sea water to expand. As the sea water gets heated up, it expands occupying more space and eventually finds its way out into the land bordering the sea. Thermal expansion of sea water has been responsible for the rise in sea level for the last century since the birth of industrial revolution. The Impacts of Rising Sea Level A significant number of individuals live in coastal areas around the world. In the United States alone, about a third of the country’s population reside in coastal regions. A good number of states bordering the sea have large pieces of low-lying lands, which are very susceptible to rising level of the sea as well as coastal storm surges. The persistent rise in sea level puts the coastal regions at risk in many ways. These include: coastal community flooding causing massive destruction of property and infrastructure, degradation of shoreline from erosion and landslides, increased storm surges and loss of wetlands and estuaries.