Effects of Global Warming: Sea Level
Glaciers and ice shelves
around the world are melting. The loss of large areas of ice on the
surface could accelerate global warming because less of the sun's
energy would be reflected away from Earth to begin with (refer back
to our discussion of the greenhouse effect). An immediate result of
melting glaciers would be a rise in sea levels.
Initially, the rise in sea level would only be an inch or two. Even a
modest rise in sea levels could cause flooding problems for low-lying
coastal areas. However, if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt
and collapse into the sea, it would push sea levels up 10 meters
(more than 32 feet), and many coastal areas would completely
disappear beneath the ocean.
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