Contemporary Climate Change 
6.10.5. Oceans and Coastal Zones
Global warming will accelerate sea-level rises due to thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets. If current GCMs projections of a 4cm per decade rise are reasonable, sea level may stand at least half a metre higher by the end of the next century. This will seriously threaten many low-lying islands and coastal zones, rendering some countries uninhabitable (Lewis, 1988). Other impacts include the increased risk of coastal flooding (Kana et al., 1984; Titus et al., 1987) and salination of fresh groundwater supplies, exacerbated by an increasing occurrence of droughts or storms. Rapid sea-level rise would damage the coastal ecology, threatening important fisheries.
Changes in ocean circulation are also projected to occur as a result of changing global climate. This will not only influence marine ecosystems (due to changes in upwelling zones), but will dramatically affect regional meteorological patterns (in response to the shifting heat balance). Palaeoclimatic studies (e.g. Boyle & Keigwin, 1987; Boyle, 1988) have revealed that rapid circulation changes, within only a few decades, have occurred in the past.
Greenhouse Gases
-Carbon Dioxide
·Sources
·Sinks
·Carbon Cycle
·Concentrations
·Equilibrium
-Methane
·Sources
·Sinks
·Concentrations
-Nitrous Oxide
·Sources
·Sinks
·Concentrations
-Halocarbons
·Sources
·Sinks
·Concentrations
-Ozone
-Other Gases
-Lifetimes
-Summary
Greenhouse Forcing
-Forcing Factors
-GWPs
-ΔF-ΔC
-1765 to 1990
-Ozone
Aerosols
-Sources & Sinks
-Forcing
·Direct
·Indirect
-Total Forcing
Climate Variations
-Surface Temp.
-Precipitation
-Other
·Stratosphere
·Cryosphere
·Atmos. Circulation
·Cloudiness
Detection
-Modelling
-Attribution
·Latitudes.
·Stratosphere
·Precipitation
·Sea Level
·Fingerprints
-When?
Future Climate
-GCM Simulations
-Feedbacks
·Water Vapour
·Clouds
·Ice Albedo
·G-house Gases
-21st Century
Impacts
-Agriculture
-Forestry
-Ecosystems
-Water Resources
-Oceans/Coasts
-Human & Health
Responses
-Stabilising
-FCCC
-Kyoto Protocol
-UK Programme
·Energy Demand
·Energy Supply
-Evaluation