Documentary "Climate Risk: Sea - When the Flood Comes" online at ZDF channel
For years, climate researchers have been warning of the potentially devastating consequences of rising sea levels caused by climate change. What if the worst-case scenario occurs?, the ZDF, a German public-service television broadcaster, broadcasted last Sunday 11.10.2020 a documentary about sea level change and its impacts on the coast, where several researchers also members of the SPP SeaLevel Program, contributed with their research work and findings.
Even if many scientists are currently revising their forecasts for the increase sharply upwards, this seems to have little effect on global climate policy. What changes when sea levels rise and how fast will it go?
Melting ice sheet
A crucial question in research: How will Greenland and the Antarctic develop in the future? This is because the condensation from the melting ice sheet accelerates the rise in sea levels. Climate researchers are only just beginning to include these complex dynamics in their forecasts. Estimates that were considered scare tactics just a few years ago are becoming increasingly probable.
At the Institute for Water and Environment at the University of Siegen, oceanographer Sönke Dangendorf is researching how differently the coming sea level rise can affect individual regions. In the wave channel, he simulates how wind and currents press the water masses against the coasts in very different ways and thus change regional water levels.
Coastal states are preparing
There are over 130 coastal cities, each with more than a million inhabitants. Around 40 million of them are already in areas that are regularly flooded. As early as 2100, parts of the coast could look different or disappear entirely. That is why many coastal states are starting to prepare for the forecast sea level rise. But up to what tide height do protective walls help? When do coasts and island states have to give up areas entirely to the sea?
The documentary "Climate Risk: Sea - When the Flood Comes" describes what effects the sea level rise will have on our future, and it can viewed here together all associated information.