A sea of trouble.It's a Matter of Survival points out that the prospect of a rise in the sea level prompted the president of the Maldives The President of the Maldives is the ceremonial head of state and first citizen of Maldives and the supreme commander of the Maldivian armed forces. The current President of the Republic of Maldives is Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. , in the Indian Ocean Indian Ocean, third largest ocean, c.28,350,000 sq mi (73,427,000 sq km), extending from S Asia to Antarctica and from E Africa to SE Australia; it is c.4,000 mi (6,400 km) wide at the equator. It constitutes about 20% of the world's total ocean area. , to plead for help to protect his county from total destruction. In 1987, at the General Assembly of the United Nations he said a mean sea-level rise of two metres, (6.5 ft.) would virtually submerge sub·merge v. sub·merged, sub·merg·ing, sub·merg·es v.tr. 1. To place under water. 2. To cover with water; inundate. 3. To hide from view; obscure. v.intr. his entire country of 1,190 small islands, most of which are only slightly more than two metres above mean sea level. "That would mean the death of a nation," Abdul Gayoom said. "We did not contribute to the impending im·pend intr.v. im·pend·ed, im·pend·ing, im·pends 1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending. 2. catastrophe to our nation, and alone we cannot save ourselves." The authors go on to say that it's "our carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. emissions that are threatening to sink entire nations. Europe, America, and what used to be the Soviet bloc countries generate 71% of the world's carbon dioxide. Sea-level rise and drought in the next five decades could drive more than 60 million people from their homes ... Progress could become more costly than we ever imagined." A warmer world could mean a much smaller world. A three-and-a-half degree temperature increase would start ice caps and glaciers melting. The released water would cause ocean levels to rise. The Maldives, and other island nations would disappear under the waves. Many low-lying countries -- Bangladesh, Egypt, Mozambique Thailand, Surinam, and others -- would face catastrophic flooding. Some of the world's greatest sea-level cities --London, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Amsterdam, Calcutta, Shanghai, etc --would become unlivable. But, renowned climatologist cli·ma·tol·o·gy n. The meteorological study of climates and their phenomena. cli  ma·to·log , Dr. Fred Singer said in a newspaper
interview in 1997 that a small rise in sea levels of about 18
centimetres per century has been observed for several centuries.
There's evidence that it's caused by the drifting of
continental plates and changes in the shape of the ocean basin, not from
the thermal expansion of sea water. He added that during the warming
period between 1900 and 1940, there was a drop in sea levels suggesting
that global warming, if it occurs, could actually slow any rise in sea
levels.
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