Sea Levels: Whitianga and the World's Problem

Whitianga is a small town, located on the coromandel peninsula. Living right next to the sea, means that it is a part of resident’s everyday lives. People are consistently going swimming at the beach and going out on their boats. Mercury Bay Area School is possibly the only school in New Zealand that practises a tsunami evacuation and has an event called “cross the river” swim. Because of these reasons, one would assume that the people of Whitianga are aware what is happening to the sea.

However, people are not as aware as some might like to think. There is a slowly rising issue that affects not only Whitianga, not only New Zealand but the rest of the world.

The issue is RISING SEA LEVELS.

A recent graph of sea levels over the past century have shown that while levels tends to rise and fall, there has been a steady increase of 1 metre every century. It has been predicted that sea levels will continue to rise of 1m or more by 2100 and will continue to rise after.

 For small countries like New Zealand and especially for towns like Whitianga, this is a major concern. There are several reasons for this, the two main ones being:

 GLOBAL WARMING: A problem that has been around for decades setting off chain reactions across the globe. One of these reactions is melting ice caps in Antarctica and Alaska, adding water to the 70% that already covers the earth.

THERMAL EXPANSION: Caused by Global warming, there has been speculation that sea temperature is rising, as well, by 1 degree. When particles are heated they vibrate and crash into each other which can cause matter to expand. So as the earth’s water is heated it begins to expand causing sea levels to rise.

Already, in the Pacific, islands are in danger of “sinking” with residents being forced to move for their own safety or because they can no longer live where they originally did.  Whitianga is under the same threat and the problem is it appears that there are few who are aware about it.

I have created this this blog to raise awareness, to inform people about this potential issue and open up a place for people to comment and discuss it and think about what can be done about it.