Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
high and dry inland cities. A new ice and land bridge will connect Alaska to Russia, and
theBritishIslesmayonceagainbecomeapartofmainlandEurope.Meanwhiletheworld's
most productive fishing grounds along the continental shelves will become dry land.
In the case of sea level, what goes down must also go up. It's very possible, some would
sayverylikely,thatoverthenextthousandyearssealevelwillincreasebyahundredfeetor
more. Such a rise in the oceans, a rather modest one by geological standards, would render
the map of the United States all but unrecognizable. A hundred-foot rise in sea level would
inundate much of the coastal plain of the East Coast, shifting shorelines up to a hundred
miles westward. All the major coastal cities—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Wilming-
ton, Baltimore, Washington, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami, and more—will
be submerged. Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Seattle will also disappear be-
neath the waves. Almost all of Florida will be gone, its distinctive peninsula drowned in
a shallow sea. Most of Delaware and Louisiana will be under water, too. In other parts of
the world, consequences of a hundred-foot rise in sea level will be even more devastating.
Entire countries—the Netherlands, Bangladesh, the Maldives—will be no more.
The geological record is unambiguous: these changes will happen again. And if Earth is
warming rapidly, as most experts suspect, then waters will rise soon, perhaps as rapidly as
afootperdecade.Merethermalexpansionofoceanwaterduringextendedperiodsofglob-
al warming can increase average sea levels by up to ten feet. Such changes will challenge
human society, for sure, but will have little effect on Earth.
After all, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Just our world.
Warming: The Next Hundred Years
Mostofusdon'tcaresomuchaboutafewbillionyearsinthefuture,orafewmillionyears,
or even a thousand years. Most of us focus on short-term concerns: How will I pay for my
kid's college in ten years? Will I get that promotion next year? Will the stock market go up
next week? What's for dinner?
In that context, we have little to worry about. Barring an unforeseen cataclysm, Earth
next year, next decade, will seem pretty much as it does today. Any differences from one
year to the next will probably be too small to notice, even if we experience an uncharacter-
isticallyhotsummer,endureacrop-witheringdrought,orsufferanunusuallyviolentstorm.
What is absolutely certain is that Earth will continue to change. Present indicators point
to a coming episode of global warming and melting glaciers, most probably influenced
and accelerated by human activities. Over the next hundred years, the consequences of this
warming will affect many people in many different ways.
In the summer of 2007, I participated in a Kavli Futures Symposium in remote Ilulissat,
afishingvillage onthewest coast ofGreenland, ashortdistance southoftheArctic Circle.
