Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges Sea level and global warming Maldives

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges Aim Should we save low-lying areas?

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges An Unfair World?

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges An Unfair World

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges

Read p56-59 Philip AllanRead p56-59 Philip Allan

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges Pacific Islands

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges

100 metres rise!

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges

Thermal Expansion

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges

Isostatic Readjustment

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges Sea levels are rising Sea level change can be difficult to measure. Sea level changes over the last century have been derived mainly from tide-gauge data, where the sea level is measured relative to a land-based tide-gauge benchmark. Local and regional sea level is subject to natural variation due to tides, waves, storm surges, and seasonal temperature effects. Such influences can generally be readily characterised and accounted for to reveal over-riding trends in long-term records. Observed trends, however, can be complicated by the fact that the land can experience vertical movements (e.g. from ISOSTATIC effects related to post-glacial rebound, tectonic activity causing subsidence or uplift, and sedimentation or erosion) the sea level to rise. Recent improved methods of filtering out these effects, as well as a greater reliance on the longest tide-gauge records for estimating trends, have provided greater confidence that the volume of ocean water has indeed been increasing, causing

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges The two main components contributing to sea level rise are: Ocean warming and the resultant thermal expansion of seawater. Ice mass loss from glaciers, ice caps, and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Reliable tide-gauge records indicate that sea level rose at a rate of about 1.7 millimetres per year during the 20th century. Recent satellite altimetry data, in agreement with recent tide gauge measurements, show that this rate is increasing, and sea level has risen at about 3 millimetres per year since 1993.

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges Much of the observed rise in sea level is directly related to the concurrent rise in global temperature over the last 100 years. Water expands as it gets warmer. Thermal expansion of the oceans to account for about 25 per cent of the observed sea level rise from 1961 to 2003 then 50 per cent from 1993 to Melt water related to the retreat of glaciers and ice sheet melting is the other major contributor. The ice sheets remain a major source of uncertainty in accounting for past changes in sea level because of insufficient data over the last 100 years. There is also significant uncertainty about the possible contribution of ANTHROPOGENIC changes in land water storage to changes in sea level, including groundwater extraction (and eventual discharge to the ocean), destruction of wetlands and other land-use changes (again adding to ocean storage), increased evaporation from surface water diversions for irrigation and industry, and storage in dams (reducing the amount of water flowing to the ocean). Source Sea level rise (mm per year) 1961– –2003 Thermal expansion Glaciers and ice caps (including polar) Greenland ice sheet Antarctic ice sheet Sum Observed Estimates of contributions to sea level rise in recent decades - Australian Government

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges Research on sea level rise? a)Where are the Maldives and what are they like? You need to know the location and basic information about the Maldives. You need to know what the main elements of the Maldives' economy are. b)What threats will there be to the people and the environment with rising sea levels? c)How should the Maldives government and people react to the problem of global warming?

Date: 22-Oct-15 Unit 1 Global Challenges The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution proposed by the Maldives to hold a panel discussion on the relationship between human rights and climate change. The resolution states that “Global warming violates human rights of millions of people, especially in countries vulnerable to climate change such as the low-lying island state of the Maldives.” “Climate change is one of the most serious challenges mankind has ever faced and has serious implications for the realization of human rights,” says High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in her contribution to the Climate Thinkers Blog, an online discussion forum hosted by the Copenhagen Conference. It is a response to a UN study in January which offered evidence that global warming undermines a number of basic rights such as food, water, shelter, health, life and self-determination. The panel debate is to be held in Geneva in July this year, and the aim is to pressure governments to reach an agreement at the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.