Flickr / DVIDSHUB We have all heard terrible stories about how the future will be devastated by a rise in sea levels.Â
As global temperatures continue to rise, ice in the polar regions and glaciers will melt, dumping tons of extra water into the ocean. Warmer water temperatures will also lead the oceans to expand.
These factors will cause sea levels to increase and swamp coastal areas all over the world.
Although flooding is the obvious consequence of rising sea levels, there are plenty of other effects to consider — none of them good.
Here are five of those effects you probably haven't thought about:
1. It will contaminate our drinking water
As the rising sea crawls farther and farther up the shore, in many places it will seep into the freshwater sources in the ground that many coastal areas rely on for their drinking water. These underground water sources, called aquifers, are crucial springs of freshwater — in fact, groundwater accounts for most of the planet's freshwater.Â
Saltwater is unsafe to drink, and while it is possible to remove the salt from water, doing so is an expensive and complicated process. Some communities are already investing in costly desalination plants in anticipation of hard times ahead. San Diego County in drought-stricken California is building the largest seawater desalination plant in the western hemisphere, and the MIT Technology Review reports that the plant will cost about $1 billion.
These kinds of costly projects may be unrealistic for coastal communities on a large scale.
2. It will interfere with farming
Those same freshwater sources we use for drinking also supply the water we use for irrigation. The problems here are the same: The intruding sea could make these groundwater sources saltier. Saltwater can stunt or even kill crops, but creating freshwater from saltwater is a costly and unsustainable practice.
In a twist of irony, recent research has suggested that pumping freshwater from the ground for human use may actually be contributing to a rise in sea levels. After the groundwater has been used — for drinking, irrigation, or other industrial purposes — it is often discarded into the ocean, where it adds to the already-growing volume of water lapping at our shores.Â
3. It will change our coastal plant life
fishhawk/Flickr A salt marsh in New Jersey. More saltwater hitting our shores will change the chemistry of the soil on the coast, meaning the plant life there will most likely change as well.
Plants are really sensitive to their environments. Air temperature, access to water, and the chemical characteristics of soil are all factors that influence whether a plant can thrive in a given location.