Why Is It Important?

1. Impacts on Animal

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Various animals are on the verge of extinction through rising sea levels. Among the representative endangered animals, polar bears are the best known to many. One of the causes of sea-level rise is that glaciers on the Earth are melting due to global warming.  Polar bears live on glaciers for most of their lives. Most of the acts of hunting for food or mating for reproduction to maintain their lives and protect their populations are done on glaciers. However, polar bears, one of the top existing predators with strong vitality are increasingly losing their habitats and are unfortunately endangered.

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2. Increasing Risks of Tsunami

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Continuous sea-level rise will threaten the risk of tsunamis in all parts of the world. A small tsunami that does not cause much damage now will become a tremendously threatening tsunami in the future due to rising sea levels. In other words, a small tsunami in the future means that it will cause damage and threats similar to the current massive tsunami. This problem will suffer damage to small island countries first such as Japan and the Republic of Korea and have a greater adverse effect.

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3. Impacts on Islands

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Island countries around the world are at risk of flooding due to rising sea levels such as Japan and the Maldives. The most recent case was in 2011-2016 with an annual sea level rise as much as 10mm resulting in 6 more islands from Solomon Islands to erode and submerged into the sea, two of those islands having villages which were destroyed and people were forced to relocate. Even China has been sinking with the sea levels rising approximately 3.4 millimeters annually over the past 40 years, which is recorded to be 0.2 millimeters higher than the world average. The Republic of Korea is no exception when it comes to the rising sea levels, with the levels in Jeju Island rising 22 centimeters, resulting in breakwaters and intensified typhoons and strong wind damage along the coastlines of Island Countries.

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In the case of damage caused by rising sea levels, most of the large cities of mankind are located on the beach, and most of the large cities will be submerged. According to the data, when the Arctic Greenland ice melts, the sea level rises 7m, but when all the Antarctic ice melts, it rises 58m to 60m. In other words, it's like a disaster. The problem is not just melting the surface of the ice continent, but melting around the sea as the end splits and collapses like a pillar. In particular, the Greenland ice layer adjacent to the Arctic region is melting very quickly, which is serious.

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4. Impacts on People's Lives

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It is estimated that by 2050, properties home to over 300 million people would fall way below the elevation of the average annual coastal flood. In addition to that, it was also estimated that in about 80 years (2100), places home to over 200 million people could permanently plumish below the high tide line. Over the course of the twenty-first century, sea levels have been projected to have risen about 2 and 7 feet, and potentially more. The throats are mostly concentrated in Coastal Asia. Coastal floodings could damage infrastructures and crops to the coastal communities. 

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5. Possible Disasters 

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Great amounts of groundwater pumping from drought caused by global warming will lead to the collapse of the ground. The ground in Korea is made up of hard rocks, so there is little damage. However, it has been raised as a serious problem in places with weak ground, such as the Netherlands, Vietnam, and Italy. According to simulations by international researchers, by 2040, areas equivalent to 8% of the Earth’s surface will suffer ground subsidence with a probability of more than 50%. When ground subsidence occurs, the risk of flooding increases, and if there are many irrigation facilities and high population density, the damage is expected to be enormous. In coastal areas, the damage caused by sea level rise will be serious if the ground height is less than 1 meter above average sea level. Seawater penetration into groundwater due to sea level rise is also concerning. If the salt concentration of groundwater increases, the salt concentration may increase in unsaturated soil above the groundwater surface, which may cause crop damage in agricultural land. As the sea level rises, the inland groundwater level also rises. This can reduce the thickness of the unsaturated soil layer, causing damage to the cultivation of coastal lowlands.