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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Sea level rising

Global warming is causing the earth's temperature to rise about half a degree Celsius in the past 100 years. Half a degree might seem to you to be just a very small number, however, it is big enough to affect our planet.The main ice could be found at Antarctica, which is at the South Pole, with about 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of its fresh water. Antarctica is covered with ice an average of 2,133 meters. If all of the Antarctic ice melted into the vast sea, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters. But the average temperature in Antarctica is -37°C, so the ice there is in no danger of melting. But there might be a less shocking reason than polar ice melting for the higher ocean level -- the higher temperature of the water. Water is most dense at 4 degrees Celsius. Whether the temperature is higher or lower, the density of water would decrease. So as the overall temperature of the water is rising, it naturally expands a little bit making the oceans level increase. Researches had estimate that the sea will rise 50 centimeters with the lowest estimates at 15 centimeters and the highest at 95 centimeters. The rise of the sea level will come from the melting glaciers and ice sheets which are caused by the gradually increasing temperature of the planet. Could you imagine if the Polar Caps rises until it covers the whole Singapore? I hope it would not work out this way. Therefore, the message to learn from this rising of sea level is start conserving now!

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