Climate Change Already Threatens Caribbean Nations with Rising Sea Levels

First Posted: May 08, 2013 08:20 AM EDT
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Rising sea levels are a huge threat for island nations, such as Grenada. Now, it turns out that the ocean is already claiming Caribbean land as it sinks into the water. The people along the eastern stretch of Grenada have watched for decades as the sea ate away at their shoreline; now, many families are thinking of relocating.

"The sea will take this whole place down," said Desmond Augustin, a local fisherman from the location, in an interview with The Washington Post. "There's not a lot we can do about it except move higher up."

Global sea level rise has long been predicted by scientists. In fact, with the use of core samples, tide gauge readings and satellite measurements, researchers have been able to find that the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by four to eight inches over the past century. Yet what is more worrisome is the fact that over the past 20 years, the annual rise has been .13 inches--about twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years, according to National Geographic.

So what exactly is causing this phenomenon? Climate change is largely to blame. When water heats up, it expands, which means that warmer oceans simply occupy more space. In addition, melting glaciers and polar ice caps are adding to the actual amount of water in the world's oceans. Yet it's not only these large chunks of ice that are melting; ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica's ice sheets are also contributing.

While the seas rise, though, not everyone is affected equally. Island nations in the Caribbean, such as Grenada, are particularly impacted by the encroaching ocean. On one particular stretch of Grenada, the beaches are rapidly being eaten away due to a combination of the rising seas and practices such as the extraction of sand for construction.

"It's a massive threat to the economies of these islands," said Owen Day, a marine biologist with the Caribsave Partnership in an interview with The Washington Post. "I would say the region's coastal areas will be very severely impacted in the next 50 to 100 years."

Yet there are those who believe that while global sea level rise cannot be stopped, it can be slowed to some extent. A recent study found that by cutting short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon, we could potentially cut the annual rate of sea level rise by 24 percent.

"It is still not too late, by stabilizing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and reducing emission of shorter-lived pollutants, to lower the rate of warming and reduce sea level rise by 30 percent," said Veerabhadran Ramanathan of Scripps, who led the study, in an interview with AtmosNews. "The large role of the shorter-lived pollutants is encouraging since technologies are available to drastically cut their emissions."

Currently, though, these island nations are still at serious risk. They're attempting to build breakwaters and create natural buffers that will help keep back the tide of water from serious storms and rising seas. Whether or not they can actually adapt to this serious consequence of climate change, though, remains to be seen.

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