Rising Sea Levels: The Real Threat to Modern Societies

This essay explores the critical issue of rising sea levels and its profound impact on modern societies. It begins by highlighting the alarming increase in carbon dioxide emissions and the resulting global warming, which is identified as the primary cause of rising sea levels. The essay details the devastating consequences, including the loss of coastal cities, displacement of populations, and the exacerbation of extreme weather events. It emphasizes the need for immediate action from individuals, industries, and governments. The essay suggests individual responsibility through reduced carbon use, the adoption of green infrastructure, and the regulation of air conditioning. It advocates for industrial control of production processes and waste management. Finally, it calls for governmental actions such as carbon taxes, and investments in technological advancements like renewable energy sources to mitigate the effects of climate change. The essay concludes with a call for a sustainable approach to development, prioritizing environmental conservation to protect future generations.

Running Head: RISING SEA LEVELS
YiTing Zhang
Dr Roebuck
Eng 15
3/1/2020
Topic: Rising Sea Levels: the Real Threat to Modern Societies

1RISING SEA LEVELS
With the progress made by the society, like the growing era of the digitization process,
the rise of population, the era of the modernization, the changes that are evident in the
organizational structure of the different industries operating in the economy in the recent world
along with similar other changes that are taking place across the globe, many countries around
the globe have gradually entered the area of urbanization, industrialization, and information.
With the rise in the sea level there has been a rise of extreme climatic events like floods,
droughts and human hazards. The ongoing events that have taken place in the modern world
result in the complications of human life. The complications have often resulted in the imbalance
of the economic and the political contexts of the modern days. The ongoing concerns of global
warming have resulted in the respiratory problems among the people and lower life expectancy
along with the rising levels of anxiety, depression and other such breakdowns. The relationship
between human development and the stability in the earth's ecosystem is therefore indirectly
proportional.
According to the various research done in the field of climate change its states that, in
2018 alone, global human carbon dioxide emissions exceeded 3.7 billion tons, while the world's
volcanoes release only 30 to 40 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, compared with 100
times human emissions. The researcher Edmunds pinpoints that over the past 10 to 12 years,
about 40 gigatons of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere, which is about the
same as the emissions that caused earth's fifth mass extinction 66 million years ago. These
numbers are even scary to read. What is the expense behind the huge amount of carbon
emission? The number one problem will be the rising sea level caused by global warming.
Today, every country around the world should have to pay close attention to global warming,
which leaves countless people's life and property at stake.

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The disasters caused by sea levels rising are extremely terrible. Increasing sea levels will
leave no livable areas for cities located around the coastline. Fertile deltas and coastal cities will
gradually lose their economic advantages, even being buried by the sea; that will be a tragedy for
all. The tragedy will be same for the coastal rich land of fish and rice According to the statistics
provided by NASA, created by NASA, it had previously estimated that sea-level rise would
affect 80 million people by 2050, said Scott Culp, senior scientist at the US climate center and
lead author of the study. In a later study, researchers used more accurate models to measure the
elevation of the ground and found that by 2050, 240 million people could be affected by higher
levels of sea water. The study shows that the areas most affected are likely to be Asia. Large
areas of countries, such as Vietnam and India, including densely populated cities such as
Mumbai, would be flooded. Mumbai, home to more than 18 million people, could be completely
submerged in the next 30 years. In addition to Asia, 3.5 million people could be at risk of
flooding in the UK by 2050, while dozens of cities along the US coast could also be submerged,
particularly in states such as New Jersey and Florida.
Meanwhile, increasing sea level will also be associated with abnormal weather
conditions, human hazards, hurricane or tornado, which have already more frequently paid a visit
on the earth. We all know that in recent years, the west and east coasts of the US have been
frequently attacked. It is considered that the cost of storm recovery is huge. Based on the article
'storm recovery' costs, it clearly states that in the past 20 years leading up to Hurricane Sandy in
2012, the United States suffered 133 weather disasters that exceeded $1 billion in damages, for a
total of over$177 billion. Also, a series of pests and infectious diseases will attack human beings.
The declining yield of agriculture and pervasive plague will severely interfere with our lives.

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Confronting the severe threats of rising sea leave in terms of life and property, all people around
the globe should take immediate measures to tackle the issue.
First, individuals should take responsibility to reduce their carbon use. From a very tiny
little step, we should take more public transportation and plant trees in the city we live in. In
recent decades, urbanization has become more and more severe than before. Today, as more grey
infrastructures take over the domain of the city, it does accelerate global warming. As we know,
the ecosystem is highly connected. To keep the balance for this situation, more green
infrastructures should be greatly suggested, especially planting trees. Apart from that, our over-
reliance on air-conditioning also exerts a negative effect on the worldwide ecosystem. Based on
eth various researches that are conducted in recent years, the fastest-growing U.S. cities have
effectively been built on air-conditioning. This is also true in the Middle East and Asia, and as a
result, global energy consumption is soaring precisely when it needs to be lowered. Throughout
the country, most designs for new office, commercial and residential property rely entirely on
AC, rather than on time-honored cooling technologies such as shading from trees and cross-
ventilation from windows and fans. As a result, there is now an expectation that indoor air will
be frigid on even the steamiest days everywhere from the Deep South to the West. What's worse,
this expectation is spreading to the nations where American culture carries influence; sales of air
conditioners rose 20% in India and China last year.” The consequences of this kind of use of air-
conditioning means that how we live is at the expense of the environment. Only if people can
regulate their behaviors to control their consumption of electricity, the total discharge of carbon
dioxide will come down. Notwithstanding, we have to admit that overpopulation makes
individuals' efforts tip of the iceberg. So, more efforts should be paid by industries.

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Secondly, there is no denying that industrialization does exert an important impact on
global warming and the subsequent rising level of sea. In other words, if the industries could
effectively control the process of production including industrial materials, recycling and
techniques, it will intensively reduce the damages caused by industrialization. As we know,
industrial wastes are the main reason for environmental pollution. Every year, industries around
the globe have excluded countless tons of pollutants. If they stubbornly insist on their
conventional ways of producing and consuming, it will deteriorate the environmental issue.
Fortunately, nowadays, more and more industries have converted their traditional ways of
production into a more environmental-friendly way, in which new materials substitute
conventional materials like fossil fuels and oil, which significantly control the release of carbon
dioxide. However as long as human demands keep increasing, the pollutants can never be cut off.
So, both individuals and industries should regulate their behaviors, making efforts to slow down
the worsening problems.
Finally, the government should take immediate action to regulate carbon emission. On
one hand, explicit laws and penalties will effectively control the case. In recent decades, many
governments have added carbon tax into the laws. As more companies and industries face the
added energy bills, they will have to find ways to shrink the carbon emission of their properties
to lower their cost. Meanwhile, this kind of law like a carbon tax will effectively reinforce
people's awareness of protecting the environment and reducing carbon emission rather than a
burden or debt, because it will give people more choices and freedom. Instead of directly forcing
people to do what and what not, comprehensive laws like that will let them know that their total
carbon consumption should be under a line. Based on the statement from the article. As
policymakers look to trim budgets and find additional sources of revenue, a carbon tax could

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represent a good compromise between conservatives and liberals – a way to address climate
change while protecting consumer freedom and raising revenue that can be used to lower other
taxes.". On the other hand, the government should allocate more funds to instigate technological
progress. If more high-techs could be taken into use, especially in the process of industrial
manufacturing, it will effectively control the carbon emission and environmental wastes, which
will prevent the global warming and slow down the rising sea level. Nowadays, solar energy,
wind power, hydrogen-based power have been pervasively used in different countries all over the
world. Hence, facing inspiring advancements, all countries around the globe should make up
their minds to improve the environment and control the increasing sea level.
We have to admit that immediately controlling climate change and decline sea levels is
impossible. The modern and conventional ways of living have always aspired us to be pacing
with the rate of progress. However we have to keep in mind that the rate of progress should not
be confused or undermined with the environmental conservation measures. The rate of our
development should be sustainable which refers to the fact that we foster our rate of development
without inflicting dangers on our future generations in terms of environmental degradation.

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References
Lindsay Rebecca. “Climate Change: Global Sea Level.” NoAA Climate.gov.P2. Nov.19.2019.
Carroll Melana. “Storm Recovery Costs.” Tampa Bay Times. 16 p19. Jan 3 2020.
Klinenberg Eric. “Viewpoint: Air conditioning will be the end of us.” Time. July 17 2013.
Sita Slavov,“A Carbon Tax Beats a Vacuum Ban.” 2014 by US News and World Report. Jan 23,
2014.
Unknown. “Sea Level.” NASA p45. Feb.10.2020.