Rising Sea Level and Human Culture

Paper Summary:

Rising sea levels, resulting from global warming, may have a potentially important impact on human culture. Recent evidence supports the contention that increases in greenhouse gases are linked to rising sea levels. This paper shows that one important impact of climate change and rising sea levels is increased rates of extinction across the globe. Further, changes in sea level will have a significant impact on outlying coastal areas, both in terms of physical changes and in terms of events such as storm surges. The paper shows that rising sea levels in the United States and across the world will have significant economic and cultural impacts and may influence human health and the environment through the flooding of toxic waste disposal sites.

From the Paper:

"The human impact of increasing sea levels will also be felt in socioeconomic terms, in addition to physical and environmental changes (Warrick, 1993). If sea level rises at what is an estimated to be a 50 to 200 cm in the next century, the financial impact on the United States could be significant. In total, the cost for a one meter rise in sea level during that time would run 270 to 475 billion dollars. This would include the cost of protecting emotion resort communities by raising barrier islands and pumping sand onto beaches, the cost of using dikes and bulkheads to protect developed areas along sheltered waters, and the loss of undeveloped lowlands and coastal wetlands (Titus et al., 1991)."

More papers on Rising Sea Level and Human Culture:

• Cause and Effect Essay # 110945 : "The Impact of Rising Sea Levels"
• Essay # 143616 : "The Desert And Human Culture"
• Research Paper # 118369 : "Evolution and Human Culture"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: