Halo, eco-loving viewers,
and welcome to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
A frightening global trend
is the quickly rising
sea levels caused
by climate change,
an issue that has garnered
serious attention from
scientists and governments
across the world
in recent decades.
Since 1993, globally
oceans have been rising
three millimeters per year,
whereas the average
in the 20th century was only
1.8 millimeters annually.
In March 2010,
the Lung Ying-tai
Cultural Foundation’s
MediaTek lecture series
featured a talk in Taipei,
Formosa (Taiwan)
on this issue by respected
Australian oceanographer
Dr. John Church
of the Marine and
Atmospheric Research
division of
the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation,
which is Australia’s
national science agency.
He is also
the Program Leader
of the Sea Level Rise unit
of the Antarctic Climate
and Ecosystems Cooperative
Research Centre.
Dr. Church is the winner
of the 2007 Eureka Prize
for Scientific Research
given by the University
of New South Wales,
Australia and
the co-convening
lead author for the chapter
on sea level rise
for the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change
Third Assessment Report.
We now feature excerpts
from his insightful
presentation entitled
“Sea Level Rise:
Understanding, Expectation
and Migration”
So what do we know
about sea level rise?
If you look at
the historical data which
we have been responsible
for producing, that
the rate of sea-level rise
has increased
from the 19th
to the 20th century.
It has increased
during the 20th century
and is continuing to rise.
This contrasts with
the period over which our
coastal society developed
when there were
relatively stable sea-levels
and we could develop
right up to the coast.
This is no longer
the situation.
The historical record
of the Earth
is very important
for us to consider.
In the last interglacial,
let’s go 130,000 years ago,
sea-level was
four to six meters
higher than it is today.
And coming into that period
sea-level rose rapidly
at rates of about
1.5 meters per century.
Then to the last phase
of the cycle, sea-levels fell
by over 120 meters
and from the last ice age
up till about
10,000 years ago
sea-level rose rapidly.
A meter per century
for many millennia
with peak rates
perhaps two, three
or even more meters
per century.
These are very rapid rates
of sea-level rise.
The current rise
of the seas is caused
by climate change.
Human activities,
particularly
livestock raising,
are releasing enormous
quantities of dangerous
greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere and
rapidly heating our planet.
The reasons
for sea-level rise
are firstly warming
of the oceans.
The oceans
are absolutely central
to climate change.
If you want to understand
climate change, you have
to understand the oceans.
They have absorbed
a huge amount of heat.
As they warm, they expand
and sea-level rises.
Thermal expansion
is a direct result
of greenhouse gases
so it’s the warming
of the planet, warming
of the atmosphere.
Most of the heat
absorbed in this process
is actually in the oceans.
Over 90% of the heat
that’s been added
to the Earth’s system
is in the oceans,
so warming of the oceans
is absolutely essential.
Secondly,
melting of glaciers;
I’m talking about glaciers
in places like Alaska,
Patagonia, and Europe.
The biggest issue
in the longer term is
the future of the ice sheets.
Surface melting on
the Greenland ice sheet
again cause
sea-levels to rise.
One of the major issues is
if we pass
a certain threshold,
estimated at about
three degrees Celsius, then
melting exceeds snowfall,
leading to an ongoing,
and essentially
irretrievable decay of
the Greenland ice sheet
and a sea-level rise
of meters over millennia.
In recent years,
the ice sheets
in the Antarctic
have been melting
at an unprecedented rate.
In February 2010,
a 2,500 square kilometer
glacier, weighing
1 billion tons,
separated from
the Antarctic continent
and began to drift at sea.
According to a new study
by geosciences expert
Dr. Richard Katz of
Oxford University, UK
and others,
the Pine Island Glacier
of the West Antarctic
ice sheet has passed
its collapse tipping point.
A collapse would raise
global sea levels
by 24 centimeters,
which would cause
enormous disasters
in many coastal areas
around the world.
In Antarctica,
it’s not surface melting
as it is in the Greenland
ice sheet, but more
a warming ocean
has penetrated underneath
the outlet glaciers
in Antarctica,
melting them at the base
and allowing ice shelves
collapsing,
allowing outlet glaciers
to flow more rapidly.
This is a poorly understood
process at the moment,
but potentially a
critically important process
for the longer term.
One of the important things
to realize about
the ice sheets is that
largest uncertainties
are essentially one sided.
Our lack of understanding
means that
sea level rise could be
substantially larger than
we currently estimate but
not substantially smaller.
When we return,
we will have more
from Dr. Church
on rising sea-levels
and the consequences
to humanity.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
Environmental refugees
are already an issue
in the world.
It will be an issue
into the 21st century
and beyond.
We need to
think about these events
because sea level rise
will be felt most acutely
through extreme events,
and the least developed
nations and the poor
are most at risk.
Welcome back to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
featuring excerpts from
a recent presentation
on rising sea levels
given by
Australian oceanographer
Dr. John Church as
part of the Lung Ying-tai
Cultural Foundation’s
MediaTek lecture series.
According to the
Fourth Assessment Report
of the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change
released in 2007,
the average sea level
globally is estimated
to rise between 18
and 59 centimeters
by 2100.
However, many scientists
now believe that
the report’s projections
were too conservative,
with experts saying a
one meter to two meter rise
by century’s end
is a real possibility.
A stark reality faced
by many island nations
right now is the danger
of totally disappearing.
On October 17, 2009,
the government of
the Maldives conducted
a cabinet meeting
entirely underwater,
where the nation’s president
His Excellency
Mohamed Nasheed
and other top officials
signed a document
calling for all countries
to take immediate action
to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to protect
low-lying nations.
Coastal countries are also
seriously threatened
with Bangladesh,
Indonesia and Thailand
seeing floods and
seawater intrusions
becoming
more and more frequent.
Based on projections,
if sea levels
rise 50 centimeters, then
55% of Bangkok, Thailand
will be underwater;
if it rises one meter,
then 72% of the city
will be submerged.
The United Nations
University Institute
for Environment
and Human Security
predicts there will be
over 200 million
climate change refugees
by 2050
and over 40 countries
will cease to exist by 2100
due to sea-level rise.
There are many islands
in the Pacific (Ocean),
the Indian (Ocean),
and the Caribbean (Sea)
that will all be impacted
by sea level rise, and
perhaps more important
are the many deltas
around the world,
where there are many
large populations living
right next to the coast.
Not only is sea level rising,
but the land
in these regions
is sinking also.
These combined impacts
will have
very serious implications
through the 21st century
and beyond.
Many people live within
about a meter of sea level;
it’s estimated
that about in an excess
of about 100 million,
maybe the order of
150 million people
live within about a meter
of the current high tides
around the world.
The melting glaciers and
the heating of the oceans
which are causing
seawater levels
to climb every year
are being driven
by the huge amounts
of greenhouse gases
being released
into the atmosphere.
Per the paper “Livestock
and Climate Change”
published in late 2009 in
World Watch Magazine,
which is published
by the respected
WorldWatch Institute,
livestock raising
is accountable
for more than 51% of
all human-caused global
greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr. Church now
addresses aerosols
and how they relate
to the true extent of
the warming of the Earth.
Another important aspect
of this is aerosols.
These aerosols,
which arise from
the burning of fossil fuels,
resulting in air pollution
in cities around the world,
these tend
to cool the planet
offsetting some
of the warming from
the greenhouse gases.
In contrast to
the greenhouse gases that
have a very long lifetime
aerosols have
a short lifetime,
can be washed
out of the atmosphere
relatively rapidly
and we have
a lot less understanding
of their impact.
The concern is that while
they may be offsetting some
of the warming to date,
masking some
of the warming to date,
with society deciding to
clean up our atmosphere
it may reduce that offsetting
and actually reveal
the true potential
of greenhouse gases
to warm the planet
even faster.
In order to protect
ourselves and our children,
Dr. Church is calling
upon the world
to pay close attention to
the threat of climate change
and take
immediate action on
greenhouse gas emissions
to halt rising sea levels.
If we are to avoid
the melting of
the Greenland ice sheet
and other sea-level rises
then reduction
in our emissions
of greenhouse gases,
a very significant reduction,
a sustained reduction
will be required.
Society needs to
call on our governments
to show leadership
to ensure that
we reduce our emissions;
we reduce them
substantially and urgently.
We will have to
change the way
we approach our use
and wastage of energy,
we’ll have to
adopt new technologies.
This is a major challenge
to society,
a very important challenge
for society,
and I argue that
the need for reduction
in emissions is urgent;
we need to start now.
The most effective
and fastest solution
to address the heating
of our planet
is for us to all adopt
the organic vegan diet.
If we end consumption
of animal products,
the livestock industry
will cease to exist and
sea levels will stop rising
as our planet cools.
We thank Dr. John Church
for sharing his important
and critical message
about the oceans
with the world and
wish him much success
in his future
oceanographic research.
For more details
on Dr. John Church,
please visit
www.CMAR.CSIRO.au
Conscientious viewers,
thank you
for your kind company
on today’s edition of
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Up next is
Enlightening Entertainment,
after Noteworthy News.
May all enjoy blessed lives
and inner peace.
What would you do if
children without homes
came to your doorstep?
I was placed in Déva
as a parish priest in 1992
and it was very difficult
to preach on Sunday
knowing that there were
hungry children
in front of the church.
I invited them for lunch
after the Mass.
I believe that my only duty
is to show how good
it is to do good deeds,
how good it is
to live in love.
Learn about
the loving work of
Franciscan monk
Brother Csaba
in Romania on Part1 of
“One Large Family:
The Nurturing
of the Saint Francis
Foundation of Déva”
Sunday, May 23, on
Good People, Good Works.