Projecting Sea Level Rise

Washington King

Tides Curriculum

Essential Questions

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• What causes sea level rise and how does it interact with other coastal hazards?

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• How likely will sea level rise impact your community within your lifetime?

DRAFT - Slide 2

AGENDA

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• See an example of coastal flooding: Bellingham, WA
• Explore the WA Coastal Network’s Sea Level Rise Projection online tool
• Learn about sea level rise
• Analyze sea level rise projections for your community

DRAFT - Slide 3

Video: Flooding in Bellingham

Slide 4

Popcorn Share

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• How it works: The first student to share chooses the next student to share, and so on.
• Prompt: Describe a time when you observed flooding.
• Where were you?
• What body of water flooded?
• What caused the flooding?

DRAFT - Slide 5

ACTIVITY: Projecting Sea Level Rise

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• What will sea level rise look like in Washington State? Let’s find out!

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• Work in small groups to complete Part A of the provided worksheet.

DRAFT - Slide 6

Some helpful definitions…

A projection predicts the future based on present information.

Exceedance is when a value goes above a specific amount.

A greenhouse gas traps heat from the sun.

The gasses released by cars and factories are emissions.

DRAFT - Slide 7

What causes sea level rise?

Slide 8

Sources of Sea Level Rise

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Melting glaciers

Thermal expansion

Antarctic

ice sheet

13%

Greenland

ice sheet

4%

45%

38%

change in inches of ice per year

3X ↑ in

5 yrs

4X ↑ in

10 yrs

Class Consensus

Which greenhouse gas scenario do you want the class to use?

HIGH

(RCP 8.5)

LOW

(RCP 4.5)

OR

DRAFT - Slide 10

ACTIVITY: Projecting Sea Level Rise (con’t)

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• What will sea level rise look like in our community? Let’s find out!

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• Work in small groups to complete Parts B and C of the provided worksheet.

DRAFT - Slide 11