"Rising Sea Level" by Andrew An

I think everyone has heard of someone saying “the sea level is increasing due to melting glaciers”. Although a lot of people are aware of the fact that sea level is rising, most of the people are not aware of the severity of the issue. Rising sea level is not just having more space for swimming, but it causes a lot of global environmental issues. 

Sea level is mainly caused by the melting glaciers. As the global temperature of the Earth is increasing, the glaciers are melting rapidly. This naturally leads to an increase in sea level since the total volume of sea water increases. Moreover the sea level increases even more due to the thermal expansion of the sea water. Due to these factors, the sea level has increased by 20cm in the last 100 years. This seems like a negligible change but the rate of increase is the real problem. The rate of increase in sea level is more than twice the rate earlier in the 20th century. If this trend continues, the sea level will increase by 90cm by 2100, which will cause a lot of environmental problems all around the world. 

People living in the coastal community will be impacted by the sea level rise the most. According to the study, 4.4 million acres of individual properties in the United States are projected to be at least partly below tide lines. As a lot of regions near the coast lines are sinked by the water, many people are forced to migrate from their own house. Moreover, the abundance and intensity of natural disasters, such as flooding, increases. This will cause enormous damage to people. The rising sea level also causes massive economic loss. A lot of expensive and valuable architecture will be damaged and destroyed by the rising sea level. Moreover, the tourism industry is very popular near the coast line. If the sea level keeps increasing, the buildings used for tourism will decrease, and the number of tourists will also decrease. This might also cause a major economical issue for the countries that are heavily relying on tourism. The negative impact of  the sea level increase is no longer a story about the future. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) claims that the whole country of Maldive will be sinked under water by 2100. This means that the whole 500,000 people living in Maldives are losing their home country. 

Since sea level rise is directly giving a negative impact to our life, it is urgent to solve this problem. The most fundamental solution to this problem is to stop glaciers from melting and sea water from warming up, which can be done by emitting less greenhouse gases and decreasing the rate of global warming. Realistically, however, this is very hard to achieve since too many factories are running right now. Therefore, an alternative solution to this problem is required. Making artificial islands could be one of the solutions. Artificial solutions can provide a safe space for people to live in, which could be a new shelter for those who lost their own habitat. If we combine long-term climate efforts with innovative solutions like artificial islands, we can protect vulnerable communities and the Earth.