SURGING SEAS
ANTARCTICA & GREENLAND Effects of the Melting Ice Caps
Data from NASA’s Grace satellites show that the land ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland are losing mass. The continent of Antarctica has been losing about 134 billion metric tons of ice per year since 2002, while the Greenland ice sheet has been losing an estimated 287 billion metric tons per year. This decrease in mass is caused by the increased global temperatures that make the massive ice sheets, glaciers and ice caps that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt at an accelerated pace. Additionally, Scientists believe seawater is seeping beneath Greenland’s and Antarctica’s ice sheets, effectively lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the sea. Moreover, higher sea temperatures are causing the massive ice shelves that extend out from Antarctica to melt from below, weaken, and break off.
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ANTARCTICA IS 6.46 TIMES AS BIG AS GREENLAND
Antarctica is 14,000,000 km² while Greenland is 2,166,086 km².
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ANTARCTICA 2002
GREENLAND 2014
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This radial graph shows the mass of the land ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, measured in gigatons, compared to the mean mass of these ice sheets. This data was gathered from NASA’s Grace satellites between April 2002 and November 2014. The further from the center each data point is, the higher the mass is in comparison to the mean. The trend of the data points to move closer to the center over time shows that the land ice sheets in both locations are losing mass.
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RISING SEA LEVELS
Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming: the added water from melting land ice and the expansion of sea water as it warms. Due to the melting ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, the Earth’s sea levels will continue to rise over the next few thousand years until much of the earth is uninhabitable. When sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats. Besides displacing humans and destroying infrastructure, as seawater reaches farther inland it can cause destructive erosion, flooding of wetlands, contamination of aquifers and agricultural soils, and loss habitat for fish, birds, and plants. Since 1870, sea levels have risen by 20 to 40 centimeters across the globe. According to NASA, global sea levels rose about 17 cm in just the last century. The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century. Currently, the sea levels are increasing at a rate of 3.5 mm per year. If all of Antarctica’s ice sheet melted the sea level would rise 73 m and if all of Greenland’s ice sheet melted the sea level would rise 6.5 m. All other ice sheets on earth, besides these two, would cause the sea level to rise 0.5 m
MEAN SEA LEVEL RISE OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS
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20 COUNTRIES MOST AT RISK FROM SEA LEVEL RISE
New York City
The countrieshighlighted in dark blue have the largest populations living on land that will be below sea level by the end of the century. We will focus on New York City, United States, Venice, Italy and Shanghai, China.
Venice Shanghai
VENICE VENICE IS NOT ALONE. By 2100, 14 major U.S. cities could disappear as well including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boston, New York City, Atlantic City, Honolulu, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, Charleston, Virginia Beach, Seattle & Savannah
VENICE HAS SUNK MORE THAN 60 CM SINCE 1727. Due to the ongoing sinking of the city combined with the rising sea levels, Venice could sink another 80 mm by 2032
SCALE: 1 METER = 1/2 INCH
RIALTO BRIDGE = 7 METERS 2400 SEA LEVEL RISE = 6 METERS
2200 SEA LEVEL RISE = 3 METERS 2100 SEA LEVEL RISE = 1 METER ELEVATION = 1 METER
SHANGHAI 10% OF SHANGHAI’S RESIDENTS LIVE IN LOW LYING ESTUARY AREAS, making them incredibly vulnerable to higher tides that are washing away the delta soil upon which the city’s foundations are built. The rising sea level is also tainting the city’s fresh water supply from the Yangtze river with salt water.
ORIENTAL PEARL TOWER = 467 METERS
SCALE: 1 METER = 1/2 INCH
2400 SEA LEVEL RISE = 6 METERS
2200 SEA LEVEL RISE = 3 METERS 2100 SEA LEVEL RISE = 1 METER ELEVATION = 4 METERS
NEW YORK NEW YORK CITY IS THE MOST THREATENED CITY IN THE U.S. by rising sea levels as it has the most people living on land less than 3 meters above the high tide line. New York city’s low lying population count is 700,000.
SCALE: 1 METER = 1/2 INCH
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING = 381 METERS
2100: UNCHECKED POLLUTION
2100: EXTREME CARBON CUTS
2400 SEA LEVEL RISE = 6 METERS
2200 SEA LEVEL RISE = 3 METERS 2100 SEA LEVEL RISE = 1 METER ELEVATION = 10 METERS Light blue shows land landmass that will be covered in water by 2100
WHAT YOU CAN DO Sea level rise has dramatically increased in the last century due to human activity. Avoiding a future underwater requires commitment and action. You can help by living a low carbon lifestyle and by encouraging elected officials to implement programs that take action against global warming. The sea level rise projections in this book reflect plausible estimates of future social and economic development. Thus, these estimations assume that carbon emissions will continue to rise with the world’s population level. Sea level rise is inevitable; however, by cutting carbon emissions drastically we may be able to avoid the most serious impacts.
WEBSITES REFERENCED http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-with-10-feet-of-sealevel-rise-17428 http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/cities-battling-sea-level-rise-130701.htm http://www.businessinsider.com/category/sea-levels http://choices.climatecentral.org/index.html#12/40.6947/-74.0020?compare=scenarios&carbon-end-yr=2100&scenario-a=unchecked&scenario-b=extreme-cuts http://mashable.com/2015/10/12/sea-level-rise-submerge-us-cities/#YXiLCOlQMuqi http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/ http://grist.org/list/these-freaky-maps-show-what-extremesea-level-rise-will-do-to-china/ http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-sea-level-rise/
This book was designed by Rachel Fleischer for Word & Image II in Fall 2015 at Washington University in St. Louis. It was typeset in Whitney Book and Alternate Gothic No 1.