One of the most worrying effects of climate change is the rise in sea level due to the melting of the polar ice caps. The most coastal cities could be greatly affected by this sea level rise. Therefore, studies are continually being conducted to try to predict how this sea level rise would affect them. Recently, some studies have been created. interactive maps which allow us to visualize this rise in sea level in various regions of the world, which is of great help to better understand this problem.
A recent study estimates that the sea level could rise two meters in height by the year 2100, which is consistent with projections that the sea level rise is accelerating at a more alarming rate than previously thought. This poses new scientific and technical challenges for seeking management alternatives and attempting to curb the effects of climate change and reduce sea level rise.
These estimates predicted by this study are quite pessimistic Compared with previous studies, by learning more variables and increasingly more about climate change, this study builds on a better understanding of how the Antarctic ice sheet has behaved in the past in the face of other archaic climate changes and global warming. This allows for an analysis of how this ice sheet will be affected by our future climate change. According to the research, in the case of Miami, the city is expected to face serious water-related problems before the end of the century, which portends a complicated future.
These estimates pose great challenges for both the scientific community and politicians. The study has been published in the journal Science and has been developed by the experts Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University, and Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University. For them, the main difficulty posed by rising sea levels lies in those who must make decisions about cities' coastal policies. The difficulty lies in the fact that decision-making must be based on scientific predictions and projections which may or may not have a margin of error and which can vary rapidly depending on the work being done against climate change at a global level, which has also been a topic of analysis in London and Los Angeles, where rising sea levels are putting various infrastructures at risk.
It also has difficulty for scientists since it resides in them a great responsibility to be able to generate these estimates with the smallest possible margin of uncertainty in order to make projections for the future with the greatest possible precision.
Glacial currents
One of the main reasons for the uncertainty of these predictions and for the difficulty of predicting are glacial currents. Changes in sea level are limited on glacial currents. Glacial currents are regions of ice sheets that move much faster than the rest of the ice around them. They are usually formed from ice and move at great speed. Sometimes it can reach speeds of 1 km per year.
The experts in this study consider that the calculations made of the Antarctic ice sheet are still insufficient and difficult. In this way they limit physical understanding and prediction. According to the studies on which they have been based for the article, the region of the Thwaites glacier, in West Antarctica, would be the most likely place for a rapid loss of ice with its consequent impact on sea levelThis area, located on the Amundsen Sea, has been affected by a continuous and accelerated retreat of glaciers. This is also related to the phenomenon of global warming, which is affecting multiple regions, including the caspian sea.
Oppenheimer said they need a research program that focuses on the field and on observations of the parts of Antarctica that are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The bay of the Amundsen Sea has special emphasis as it is a rather unstable area. Although they also believe that for the rise in sea level and its future prediction, they should not only focus on Antarctica but also on Greenland This area is also under constant surveillance due to its glaciers, which contribute to sea level rise, demonstrating that the current situation requires attention on multiple fronts.
This situation in the future motivates a combination of predictive models and observation to characterize the evolution of glaciers and increase precision. To be able to observe it well you must keep and expand satellite monitoring above the ice sheets to better see the rise in sea level.
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