Sea level rising

One of the major effects caused by increasing atmospheric temperatures is rising ocean levels.

In this step, Dr. Nathan B. English revisits the scenarios he introduced in the Global Warming step to explore the effect of increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on the oceans.

Video guide

Since this video is a little longer than most videos in this course, here is a guide to the topics it covers.

Now it’s your turn

Dr. English refers to the oceans as a ‘slow learner’, meaning that the impact of changes to greenhouse gas emissions may take longer to realise. What impact do you think this will have on the way policymakers address the problem of rising sea levels? Share your thoughts in the comments.

References

Figures SPM.1, SPM.2, SPM.5 and SPM.8 from IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson- Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J. B. R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.