Nature Girl

Rising Water Levels Could Spell Disaster

The Situation

So I came across some interesting information recently and I thought I should share it. Due to global warming, water levels are rising twice as fast as originally anticipated. This puts many homes, jobs and lives at risk.

The Maldives is an island state known for its stunning white beaches and crystal clear waters, but now the idyllic islands are under threat as those waters rise and the possibility of the islands disappearing under the sea become a genuine threat.
The new president of the islands, Mohamed Nasheed, has told “The Guardian” that the State of the small islands that lies on the equator could be lost under the waves if the sea level to rise due to climate change.

The President went on to state that it was not possible to stop the effects of climate change and his nation will now have to seriously consider the purchase of land in another country in case there is no choice but to abandon the tropical paradise.
As a possible replacement home Nasheed sees Sri Lanka and India as viable alternatives, because the climate and culture are similar, but Australia may also be possible because of its vast sparsely populated areas.

The President said he did not want his people to become the latest climate refugees who would spend unknown years living in tents in some other nation.
Following the predictions of the United Nations that the sea level will rise by the year 2100 by nearly 60 centimetres, the President states that this would mean large parts of the 200 inhabited coral islands would be underwater.
Overall, there are approximately 385 000 inhabitants living on 1190 islands. Tourism and fishing are the main sources of income for the residents.

Not Bad Enough?

Okay, so that’s probably not making you sit up and pay attention. So, what if I brought it closer to home? Say, Britain?
The Scilly Isles in Britain is so exposed that a combination of rising sea levels and more frequent and violent storms could make it uninhabitable.
A conference of global scientific experts has predicted a one metre-plus rise in sea levels this century and, according to experts, because the Scillies are perched precariously 28 miles out in the Atlantic they could be the worse affected place in Britain.

The combination of the two factors could spell disaster for the islands which feel the full brunt of Atlantic storms more than any other.
Craig Dryden, Scillies chief planning and development officer, said: "We are the Maldives of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Rising sea levels will certainly hit these islands -which is nothing new, they've been through it before."
The islands are surrounded by submerged ancient trackways and field patterns stretching across a now-submerged landscape that once joined four of the five inhabited islands.
"The archaeological remains on the islands tend to be burial chambers and other ritualistic sites - and what you are looking at are hilltops that once rose above a much bigger landscape," said Mr Dryden.
"Large parts of the Isles of Scilly were drowned by rising sea levels many, many years ago."
"Clearly climate change is a fundamental issue here and what we need to do is commission some research for the Isles of Scilly, and then think about mitigation," said Mr Dryden.
"Two of our key settlements, both Hugh Town and Old Town, are at sea level and obviously we are going to have problems in tackling rising seas. Ultimately, hard engineering solutions might not necessarily be cost-effective and we will have to think of something else."

The rest of the West Country is also facing a bleak scenario.
The threat has been outlined by the Environment Agency whose job is to protect communities from flooding.
"As many as 14,700 properties in Devon and Cornwall are currently known to be at flood risk from the sea," said coastal engineer Neil Watson.
"And the numbers of properties at risk from flooding, inundation and erosion will increase due to the expected impacts of climate change.
"These include sea-level rise and an increased frequency and severity of storms causing storm-surges, which are higher sea levels caused by a combination of low pressure and wind action along with the waves generated by these storms."

The National Trust, the region's largest coastal landowner is also taking the threat seriously.
"The bottom line is that we mustn't bury our heads in the sand," commented Andrew Davey, an expert on coastal matters for the National Trust.
"We are all in this together. It's not about us alone, or the Environment Agency, or Natural England, but about whole communities working together to find the optimum changes we can all live with."

Already some South West communities are calling for urgent action.
Anthony Gibson, chairman of the Bridgwater Challenge Project, said: "The news from Copenhagen reinforces the need to protect Bridgwater and its 11,000 homes from flooding.
"At the moment, this has been put at a 1-in-200-year risk - but the odds on it happening are shortening all time."

Still not scary enough? Alright, what if we put California under water?
Energy Secretary Steve Chu said in a recent interview that global warming may lead to California being abandoned. "I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going either.”

So, the situation looks bleak. The only question that remains is: Why don't we care?

I found all the information on the folowing sites:
http://www.fairhome.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.usnews.com

Tags: disasters, rising water levels, global warming

Published on September 2, 2009 by Carla | Read all recent Nature Girl articles.