• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

		Climate Change Climate Change and Global Warming What's New The Impacts of Climate Change Climate Change and Biodiversity: An Interactive Map What You Can Do:   Carbon Footprint Calculator Offset Your Emissions   Contribute Now   Contribute Monthly   Climate-Saving Tips   Get the Facts   Take a Quiz   Get our e-Newsletter   Donate now What We Do:   Stop Deforestation   Adapt to Impacts   Support Policy Where We Work on Climate Change Contact Us Press Releases Tell us what you think about climate change

Help fight climate change With your help, we can reduce the impacts of climate change on our lives, on our environment and on future generations. With a 1.5 meter rise in sea level, 17 million people in Bangladesh (15 percent of the population) could be affected. From Florida to Maine, the East coast of the U.S. is highly vulnerable to sea level rise and other factors. We Want to Hear from You Tell us what you think about our climate change work. What do you think are the biggest impacts of climate change? Climate Change in Depth Visit our climate change workspace and online library on ConserveOnline, a portal for the conservation community.

As the Earth heats up, sea levels rise because warmer water takes up more room than colder water, a process known as thermal expansion. Melting glaciers compound the problem by dumping even more fresh water into the oceans.

Rising seas threaten to inundate low-lying areas and islands, threaten dense coastal populations, erode shorelines, damage property and destroy ecosystems such as mangroves and wetlands that protect coasts against storms.

Sea levels have risen between four and eight inches in the past 100 years. Current projections suggest that sea levels could continue to rise between 4 inches and 36 inches over the next 100 years.

A 36-inch increase in sea levels would swamp every city on the East Coast of the United States, from Miami to Boston.

Worldwide, approximately 100 million people live within three feet of sea level. Sea level rise associated with climate change could displace tens of millions of people in low-lying areas – especially in developing countries. Inhabitants of some small island countries that rest barely above the existing sea level are already abandoning their islands, some of the world’s first climate change refugees.

Climate change picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Jennifer Henman/TNC (rising sea levels); Photo © istockphotos.com (New York City); Photo © Bill Kamin (iceberg, Alaska); Chart © UNEP/Grid-Arendal (sea levels, Bangladesh); Map © USGS (coastal vulnerability).