Thermal water expansion and land ice melting.

The scientific basis of this blog is based upon the impacts of global warming. Whilst global warming has been described as 'unequivocal' by the IPCC's 2007 summary for policy makers and is largely uncontested (at least by the scientific community) the nature and extent of these impacts upon different environments is uncertain and often contested. 


The IPCC (2007) has summarised that the current sea level rise experienced today (which is estimated to be at 1.7 ± 0.3 mm yr⁻¹ by Church and White (2006, doi:10.1029/2005GL024826) is almost entirely down to man made global warming. Below is a helpful and hilarious(?) summary from Climate Central of how global warming and sea level rise are intrinsically linked:

Sea level rise is thought to be a threat to coral island's as they are low lying, often less than a meter above sea level. This endangers the human populations which inhabit these islands. Much media interest surround these peoples plight, the following video from Greenpeace detailing their struggles:

However an international scientific and political argument surrounds the debate, one side supporting this popular theory of sea level rise inundating coral islands while the other staunchly rejecting this, citing coral islands ability to grow as water levels rise as they have always done. 

http://www.suite101.com/content/climate-change-and-the-rising-sea-level-threat-to-pacific-islands-a244575

This blog sets out to come to a conclusions about the fate of coral island nations and their inhabitants.