At some point, everybody is taught the dangers of global warming.  A lot of the conservation centers around the threat that climate change poses the different forms of wildlife, however due to severe weather events such as Super Storm Sandy more attention has turned towards the danger that climate change poses for our cities and even some countries.

At this point most people know the basic theory of global warming.  Emissions from factories, cars, and other energy consuming sources fill the Earth’s atmosphere and forming a barrier, trapping sunlight and increasing the Earth’s temperature.  One of the side effects of global warming is melting ice caps which can lead to higher sea levels.  Scientists estimate that if we do nothing to curb carbon emission by the year 2100 sea levels could rise as much as 14 feet.  A recent study predicted “lock-in” dates for different coastal cities.  Lock in dates are years when scientists project that reduced carbon emissions will do nothing to prevent more than half of a city’s population from becoming displaced.  For example Norfolk has a lock-in date of 2045 and New York City has a lock-in date of 2085 (as a worst case scenario).  However, some scientists believe that the lock-in dates for certain cities have already passed, such as Miami and New Orleans which are built on low lying land (Miami’s situation is worsened due to its “porous limestone bedrock”).

Meanwhile several states are also in danger of losing land to rising sea levels.  California, New York, and Louisiana all face the possibility of the sea permanently encroaching upon their land. And in Florida 40% of the population lives on land that could potentially become permanently flooded.

Rising sea levels are so dangerous that they actually threaten entire nations.  Several small islands must face the possibility that their nations could disappear in the not so distant future.  For example the Maldives sit at 7 feet above sea level, and the government fears that the nation could end up becoming completely submerged.  As a publicity stunt, the members of the Maldives’ cabinet held an underwater meeting, where they signed a document advocating cuts in carbon emissions.  The cabinet members held the meeting because they hoped that the stunt would galvanize action at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.  Hopefully, as more people grow more aware of the dangers of climate change, more people will take action to preserve threatened coastal areas and islands.