With sea levels on the rise, low-lying coastal areas become more vulnerable after each and every year. Rising sea levels contribute to hurricanes, typhoons, and especially storm surges as more water gets pushed inland and causes flooding. This is particularly crucial because according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), eight of the ten largest cities in the world are near a coast. Rising sea levels contributing to those natural disasters coerce inhabitants of coastal areas to migrate to locations on higher ground. However, rising seas also affect the lives of animals. As more water is pushed inland, destructive erosion, wetland flooding, and soil contamination with salt are all possibilities that would cause many plants, birds, and fish to lose their environment as well. Even basic services such as Internet communication become vulnerable in coastal areas due to much of the communication infrastructure being in the path of rising seas.

Above: an image of storm surge flooding in New Jersey caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (courtesy of scied.ucar.edu)