Scientist on 60 minutes said the world's oceans would rise 3 feet over 100 yrs due to global warming?

Question

This isn't a question on weather or not globial warming exists or not im curious about what the united states as well as the rest of the world would look like with the oceans 3 feet higher

Answer 1

This is very easy to find! What you need is called a topographic map. They are published by the US Geological Survey, and you can buy them at all sorts of hiking and camping supply stores.

The maps show lines at each elevation level. You can get a detailed map for any area of the US, and then trace the first topo line, the second topo line, etc. to see the new coastline for any sea level change.

By the way, I heard that if the Greenland ice dams break, most of the ice shelf would slip down into the ocean within just a couple of years. That would raise sea level by 20 feet. There goes most of Florida!

Hilly places like Seattle or San Francisco would just have to build new wharfs, but California would have a massive central sea and a much larger Salton Sea connected to the ocean. The biggest geographical changes would be along the Gulf Coast.

Note: The previous poster's "Facts" are true, but insignificant compared to the expansion of water as its temperature rises. (The density of water increases as the temperature drops, and then decreases a bit when it freezes.) When floating ice melts, it makes no change at all in the level of the water. The increased water vapor in the atmosphere will make a tiny difference in sea level. (Inches?) He also completely ignores the effect of melted ice that is now on Greenland and Antartica. Those ice shelves are thousands of feet thick!

Answer 2

Sheesh people are ignorant!!!

Even taking the hyped figure of 3 feet in 100 years (which is likely to be hysterical BS anyway), the effect on global coastlines would be rather insignificant. New York gone?? Bullkaka!! Manhattan Island has an average elevation of TEN feet...the other burroughs even higher. New Orleans gone?? Much of New Orleans is ALREADY below sea level...that's why there are levies. Now, if the levies don't get built up, there might be a problem. The French Quarter of New Orleans is about 15 feet above sea level...that's why it didn't flood when Katrina hit. All of Florida flooded??? Oh, give me a break!!! Much of Florida is at least 100 feet above sea level...and very little of it is under 3 feet. Much of the Netherlands is 20 or 30 feet below sea level...they built dikes, and they work pretty well. Adding three feet to the dikes?? Child's play!

Far too many people are so ignorant they think we humans would be pathetically helpless when it comes to a three foot rise in sea level. Have they never heard of levies and dikes? Of course, the real facts don't support the dire predictions of three feet...the real facts support a rise between 2 and 8 inches. And if you think Al Gore has the real facts, well, that's just an inconvenient problem of your own.

Answer 3

I saw something like that too, but over a period of 100 years, do we really know for sure 3 ft, because the warmer the water, the more it swells as well. If the Ice caps were to melt, then who knows. Over a period of 100 yrs, and say, no one does anything, I would say a lot would be under water. If also the jet water stream should shift, I believe that Europe would be in the ice age. I just think 100 years of accelerated global warming is going to bring the water level higher, depending on how fast the melting takes and if the jet ocean stream shifts and reverses itself.

Answer 4

This is quite amusing. You should be asking yourself how or why the water levels would rise if there is global warming.

Based on the following facts I learned in 5th grade science, the assertion is absurd:

Fact 1: Water expands when it freezes. Therefore if we are talking about melting polar ice caps, that would actually reduce the volume of the world's oceans, lowering the water levels.

Fact 2: If temperatures on earth rise, then there will be more surface water evaporated into the air (and more humidity). Such evaporation would also lower water levels.

It's easy to be scared. Sometimes you have to stop and think. If you do, you'll realize how absurd the assertions of some of these 'scientists' really are. It's also important to remember that scientists obtain more money for their research when they fear monger, so they're motivated to make stuff like this up.

Answer 5

Actually in 2003 the UN Scientific Research Organisation put out a report with an estimated sea rise of 10ft over the next 100years.
However even at a 3 ft rise the effects would be terrible
The effects of a 10 ft rise on the USA would be catastrophic.
People have no idea how many infrastructures are based on the sea being at its current level.
Sewerage, storm water drainage, coastal construction in low-lying cities, are all based on current sea level. Back flow and flooding would be terrible. Pick a coastal city anywhere on the East or West coasts and there would large land areas which would be rendered unliveable.
LA, Seattle, the lower areas of San Francisco. All the Gulf State Cities would be in real trouble. The lower Mississippi and Missouri River areas would flood. The Everglades and Florida cities would flood. Boston, Philly, Washington, Manhattan & and the low lying areas of New York are swimming pools.
I live in Australia and we would suffer similar problems.

Imagine how much money will be required to try for example to raise nearly every coastal river bank on both sides in America. Or to redirect storm water run off to account for sea level increase. What about the increased effect of storm surge with increased sea level............Are you starting to get the picture?
Then you start to get the increase in Mosquito carried viruses

3ft doesnt sound like much but the flow on effects are huge

Answer 6

What a croc!! If there is global warming there would actually be an increase in snowfall in the polar regions as more water is evaporated from the oceans. The snows in the polar regions would then tie up more water and cause a drop in sea level.

See how easy it is to interpret the results from one isolated set of "facts".

Actually, to answer your question, just take a map and draw a pencil line just "landward" from the present coastline. Keep it a constant distance from the present shoreline and you will see some strange and fantastic results on the globe.

Answer 7

Tim is right, but not the way he probably thinks: Yahoo: please note that what you've placed a question mark after is not a question. It is a statement. What is it you are trying to ask? If you are asking whether I agree or not, the answer is yes, but I think the estimate about the number of feet the oceans will rise is low. I also would like to suggest to Tim, and others like him that he not be as interested in what it would look like if the oceans rise but what we can -- and MUST do to stop global warming. May I suggest a lot of regime changes?

Answer 8

To the fool who said the scientists are making up the sea level rise.

Water does indeed expand when it freezes. But it is not the sea ice that will cause a rise in the ocean levels. The melting of glaciers on land which will then flow into the ocean is what will cause the rise.

Get your atlas out and look at Greenland, its mostly ice.

Answer 9

...I am not and never have been good at math.....and I am quite memerized by this ? so could someone tell us just how FAR the rise of 3 feet higher in the Oceans would translate into DISTANCE TRAVELLED into present day shorelines say for Florida and Louisianna and Washington State Coastlines BUT
..also the SAINT LAWRENCE SEAWAY in Canada............comon U know U wanna

Answer 10

Well we'd lose part of Florida, New Orleans (again) and some coastal areas,here's a link with a map about half way through it that show this and another that shows more dramatic rise in sea level, and one specifically about Florida.