r/Futurology • u/carbonbrief • 3d ago

Environment Global warming is ‘exposing’ new coastlines and islands as Arctic glaciers shrink

https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-warming-is-exposing-new-coastlines-and-islands-as-arctic-glaciers-shrink/
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u/dafones 3d ago

Can anyone tell me: are global water levels net rising, but locally the retreat of these glaciers are exposing new coastlines, rather than submerging them?

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u/Yebi 3d ago

Sea level rise is happening very quickly on a geological scale, but on a human scale, in terms of visual impact over 20 years, it can pretty much be rounded down to zero. A centimeter or two is not going to change how the coastline looks.

Bit of an unrelated tangent, but I think in general sea level rise is a bit of a red herring, and is taking up far too much spotlight in normie discussions of climate change. Other sequelae of climate change will fuck us up long before cities sink.

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u/GoldieForMayor 3d ago

You can clearly see the rise here. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnlLa4eX0AAC-LG?format=jpg&name=medium

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u/Newleafto 3d ago

I’m not arguing against global warming, but there isn’t much evidence that there’s a significant net increase in global sea levels in the past several decades. Plate tectonics is a thing, and the sea floor is constantly rising in some places and sinking in others as the earth’s continental plates move around. Most of the worst sea level “increases” seen recently are actually due to sinking sea beds not rising ocean levels. If global temperatures rise sufficiently, the arctic regions will melt, the sea levels will rise, some coastline will be lost and other coastlines will be created. It will also open ocean passages through Canada, Alaska and Greenland.

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u/Yebi 3d ago

Are you intentionally lying, or seriously never heard of tides?