Global Warming Effect 10: Rising Sea Level

Earth's hotter temperature doesn't necessarily mean the Miami lifestyle is moving to the Arctic, but it does mean rising sea levels. How are hotter temperatures linked to rising waters? Hotter temperatures mean ice -- glaciers, sea ice and polar ice sheets -- is melting, increasing the amount of water in the world's seas and oceans.

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You can't have as much fun in the sun when the beach is underwater. Miami, along with many other areas around the world, is threatened by rising oceans.

Scientists are able to measure that melt water from Greenland's ice cap directly impacts people in the United States: The flow of the Colorado River has increased sixfold [source: Scientific American]. And scientists project that as the ice shelves on Greenland and Antarctica melt, sea levels could be more than 20 feet (6 meters) higher in 2100 than they are today [source: An Inconvenient Truth]. Such levels would submerge many of Indonesia's tropical islands and flood low-lying areas such as Miami, New York City's Lower Manhattan and Bangladesh.