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