Sea Level Rise and the Impacts on Human Population

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Dealing with Sea Level Rise

It is important that humans find ways to deal with sea level rise to ensure they are still able to live and thrive in coastal areas. However, the economic situation of the areas at risk will determine how they will act. An area in the United States affected by sea level rise is Florida. Florida is a wealthy area that is dealing with sea level issues. Florida is investing money in improved drainage systems, building structures, and water barriers in order to protect residents from the impacts of the sea level rise. Due to the resources available Florida way of dealing with sea level rise is much different than how a place like Bangladesh would react. Bangladesh residents have pled to the government for funding to build shelters to increase protection from cyclones and surges8. Many people in Bangladesh are homeless due events in the past years that have destroyed their homes, one being cyclone Komen that had over 200 fatalities in 2015. Another point to bring up is that Bangladesh only emits about 0.1% of global greenhouse emissions. With the correlation between climate change and how it effects sea level, the government of Bangladesh has requested that other countries who contribute more emissions to the environment should provide funding to low income countries, like themselves to help prepare and deal with rising sea level issues. A country like the United States contributes about 25% of global emission8. It is important for countries to protect these areas at high risk as many people reside there, and play an important role in the countries economy through activities such as fishing, and structural development.

Conclusion

The rising of sea levels is a serious issue, especially to low lying coastal areas. Climate change play a significant role in this as it causes water to be added to the oceans and expand. This poses increasing threats of storm surges, flooding, erosion, and water contamination. These impacts can have deadly effects on humans, especially those in poorer developing areas that do not have the resources necessary to deal with them. The scientific knowledge of sea level rise is improving as more people are becoming aware of the danger of it. There is still a lot to learn about what contributes to sea level rise, and how certain areas are impacted differently. In recent years’ disasters in places like Bangladesh have proved how large of an issue this is and how humans must act now in order to protect the future. It is not a cheap task to fight back against rising sea levels, as implementing new systems is costly. This could cause populations to retreat from low lying coastal areas and move inland, switching from a focus on fishing industries to more of an agriculture focus. Damage has been done, and climate change is going to cause sea level conditions to worsen, making it difficult for low lying coastal areas all over the world, rich or poor. As water continues to rise humans must adapt to the changes that will come to the world, and do their best to continue to survive.

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Figure 1- Population and land in low elevation9

Citations

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