GLOBAL PORTS & RISE OF GLOBAL SEA LEVEL

LOGISTICS

GLOBAL PORTS

&

THE RISE OF GLOBAL SEA LEVEL

By Mauricio López Dardaine

Les ports du Sud de l'Amérique, tels ceux de Buenos Aires et La Plata, en Argentine et celui de Montevideo à l'Uruguay, ne peuvent se tenir a l'écart de la menace qui pose aujourd'hui l'augmentation du niveau des mers et des océans. Dans ce cas il s'agit de l'Atlantique. Nous avons vu dans les commentaires passés la vitalité qu'il existe dans les parcs logistiques, les parcs industriels et les zones de libre-échange de cette région, parcs qui se trouvent souvent en proximité de ports tels ceux que nous considérons ici.

I'd like to convey to the readers of this comment, that a short time ago, after these lines were  posted, the people involved in a study of the rise of sea level in relation with the Atlantic seaboard of Argentina, which has been going on now for over two years, have told me that the port authorities of Buenos Aires have concerned themselves for sometime with this matter, from the scientific point of view. They meet regularly to discuss the subject, and also invite foreign experts in order to listen to their views.

Here we have focused our attention on the U.S. Global Change Research Programme – Global Climate Change Impacts in the U.S. analysis.

In our last two comments in this blog we have addressed logistics parks, industrial parks and free trade zones in both Argentina and Uruguay. These parks and free trade zones are mostly connected to the key ports in the region. And those responsible for ports such as those of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Bahía Blanca and Montevideo, ought not to be unaware of the rising of sea level. This key concern was analysed in depth during the conference held by UNCTAD in Geneva, in September 2011: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: a Challenge for Global Ports.

Let me devote these lines to Sea Level is Rising. I feel we actually need to properly understand, we people involved in logistics and exports, what is happening. Otherwise our chances of adapting our logistics and port facilities to global warming will dissolve.

Measures of adaptation concern all major ports, not only those in the south of Mercosur.

From here onwards I quote from the abovementioned source.

“After at least 2,000 years of little change, sea level rose by 8 inches over the past century. Satellite data available over the past 15 years show sea level rising at a rate roughly double the rate observed in the last century.

There are two principal ways in which global warming causes sea level to rise. First, ocean water expands as it warms, and therefore takes up more space. Warming has been observed in each of the world’s major ocean basins, and has been directly linked to human influence.

Second, warming leads to melting of glaciers and ice sheets, which raises sea level by adding water to the oceans. Glaciers have been retreating worldwide for the last century, and the rate of retreat has increased in the past decade. Only a few glaciers are actually advancing (in locations that were well bellow freezing and where increased precipitation has outpaced melting).

The total volume of glaciers on Earth is declining sharply. The progressive disappearance of glaciers has implications not only for the rise of global sea level, but also for water supply in certain densely populated regions of Asia and South America.

There are major ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica. These ice sheets are currently losing ice volume by increased melting and calving of icebergs, contributing to sea level rise. The Greenland lee Sheet has also been experiencing record amounts of surface melting, and a large increase in the rate of mass loss in the past decade. If the entire Ice sheet melted, it would raise sea level by about 20 feet.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet consists of two portions, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the more vulnerable to melting of the two, contains enough water to raise global sea level by about 200 feet.

Complete melting of these ice sheets over this century or the next is thought to be virtually impossible, although past climate records provide precedent for significant decrease in ice volume, and therefore significant increase in sea level.”

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I felt such a clear explanation of sea level rise, was worth being brought to the attention of those of us involved in logistics and world trade.