consequences:

  • many of the world’s coastlines dramatically change
  • 1 trillion dollar losses per year just in coastal cities
  • floods
  • waves break later and hit the coast with far greater force
  • 1m rise in sea levels would hit the critical level in NY
  • trade is reliant on sea levels
  • greenland’s ice is melting
  • sometimes it’s not profitable to protect a region, they have to be abandoned

measures:

  • no way to prevent
  • raise public awareness
  • projections for rising sea levels
  • sea barriers like venice’s MOSE
  • expert’s help from the netherlands
  • dyke
  • raising houses
  • floodgates
  • protect our climate

letter to the editor:

  • comment on an article

  • addresses the magazine, not the author

  • does not directly critize the author

  • no ”Dear Sir/Madam”, just ”Sir/Madam”

  • ”unless carbon emissions are cut significantly and coastal defences strengthened”, ”the benefits of action are greater.” ⇒ some places cannot be protected regardless

  • ”300 million” more like 400 million

  • ”640 million people could be threatened by 2100” there are 1 billion people expected to live in coastal ares by the end of the century

  • ”a more sophisticated assessment of the topography of coastlines around the world” ⇒ even more modern approaches use sea level measurements and most importantly land measurements since not only does the sea rise but land also sinks (land subsidence)

  • sea level rise also varies strongly, the world mean is at 3mm/year where as in Indonesia the sea rises 9mm/year