14 DAY TRIAL // We all know that because of the global warming and the whole climate change, the sea level will rise in the future. The issue now is where, and who will be affected by the water rising due to the melting of the glaciers.
The interrogation comes from the influence that winds can have on the ocean's level. Wind patterns keep the oceans at different levels around the world. If this pattern changes , wind might flood some areas and make more beach space on others, as the water would be moved from an ocean to another. Oceanographer Axel Timmermann says that sea-level might change up to 30 percent in some regions.
This year were released two studies on the sea-level rise patterns, in the Indian Ocean, and the scientists agreed on one thing: the ocean's temperature rose by one degree Fahrenheit over the past 50 years, and this partially because of the greenhouse gases produced by humans. On the subject of changing wind patters, scientists' conclusions were contradictory.
Timmermann, lead author of The Journal of Climate paper, from the University of Hawaii, stated: “I was really, really amazed when Han (lead author of the Nature Geoscience paper) said that the Seychelles will see no sea-level rise. We’re saying they should be really worried.”
The problem is that the studies used two different approach. On one side some teams used climate change models predicted for the next 50 years in the Indian Ocean, and on the other side, scientists like Weiqing Han from the University of Colorado, considered the ocean's real observed changes. Models said that the warming is stronger near the equator and on the west side of the ocean's basin, and the actual warming has been observed in the eastern side. Han said: “it has been really challenging to simulate atmospheric wind-pattern change over the Indian Ocean because the system is very, very complicated because of the land.”
The world will wait until oceanographers will get to a common version. Until then, watch out for the island's shores!