Why Sea Levels are Rising and What we can do About it

By Neeta,

Age 11

According to NASA, sea levels rose by 5.9mm in 2024, which is much higher than the expected 4.3mm. This might not seem like much, but it’s actually well over double the amount that sea levels rose in 1993! NASA also says that if sea levels continue to rise at the same rate, by 2050, sea levels will have risen by 25 to 30 centimetres.

There are many factors that can impact sea levels, such as deforestation, rapidly warming climate, littering, and glaciers melting. First, deforestation impacts sea levels because trees retain water. When trees get cut down, their roots can’t absorb water anymore, and this can make there be more water in the sea.

Also, when water is warm, it expands. This is why warming climate can affect sea levels. Of course, certain areas on the Earth get warmer with different seasons, but when it gets hotter much faster than it naturally does, sea levels can rise because of the water expanding so much. Rising temperatures can also cause glaciers and ice sheets to melt. The water from the glaciers and ice sheets goes into the sea, once again causing sea levels to rise. For example, an estimated 33 million tonnes of ice is melting from the Greenland Ice Sheet every hour! The United States Geological Survey(USGS) says that if all the ice in glaciers and ice sheets melted there would be enough water to raise sea levels by over 70 metres)!

You might be wondering why it’s bad that sea levels are rising. Well, according to the United Nations, sea levels rising can damage coral reefs and coastal areas. It can also damage low-lying farmlands, causing food insecurity and leaking pesticides into the sea. Low-lying coastal cities are likely to flood more often, and rising sea levels can also contaminate freshwater and damage housing. Countries like Bangladesh and many small islands are at risk from rising sea levels.

Some people have asked, “But don’t sea levels rise naturally?” The answer is, yes. Sea levels do rise naturally, but usually pretty steadily. Naturally, it’s stable and only rises a little, and often goes back down after a bit. With all of those issues that I told you about, however, sea levels are rising far too quickly and far too much, and if we don’t solve these problems, it may never go back down.

Despite it being such a big problem, we all can do small things to help. Planting plants and picking up litter are fun and pretty simple things you can probably do to help. Walking instead of getting your parents to drive you places is another great way to stop glaciers melting and water expanding very quickly. Encouraging others to do these things, too, can make a big difference! Maybe you can even make a club or a group of some sort?

Rising sea levels can seem like an unstoppable problem, but we can all do our part to stop it. Together, we can make a big difference!

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Photo: Flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia. The city represents an exceptional concentration of 10 million people located close to the shoreline and therefore vulnerable to rising sea levels.

ID 34327429

| Dreamstime.com

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