#IRFEST_Finland_Intro to IR_part II

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Intro to IR: Country’s Statement

Finland to UN

Statement on Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rising

Sea level rising is an increase in the level of the world's oceans due to the effects of global warming (Magnusson, 2017). Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in earth’s surface temperature since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities such as, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere and the Global warming is estimated to have a significant effect on sea level rise in the 20th century (Gornitz, 2007). Global sea level has been rising for the past century, the highest rise in sea level occurred before 6,000 years ago. From 3,000 years ago to the early 19th century and it roses about 0.1 inch (2.5 millimeters) per year in the 1990s to about 0.13 inches (3.4 millimeters) per year today the cause of this phenomena is global warming (Weeman & Lynch, 2018). The effects of higher sea levels are the swells of deadly and destructive storm and they will push farther inland than they once did, which will lead to more frequent nuisance flooding. Now, irritating and demands higher expense, nuisance flooding is predicted to be from 300 percent to 900 percent more frequent within coastal communities than it was just 50 years ago (Johansson, et al., 2004).

The rise of sea levels gives us more significant impact than we can think of. Not only it will devastate the coastal area but also the inland, though the effects are further in the coastal area. The effects on the coastal area include the destructive of shoreline erosion, the destruction of the habitats of so many creatures, and destroy the nature, and in this case most likely to get soil contaminated (Amelung & Moreno, 2002).  The change in sea levels is related to three major factors, all induced by ongoing global climate change. These three major factors are; First, Thermal expansion. The water will expand when it heats up and about half of the sea-level increase over the past 25 years is attributable to warmer oceans simply taking more area (Nunez, 2019); Secondly, Melting glaciers. Each summer, large ice formations like mountain glaciers naturally melt a bit. The evaporations in the winter, snow, mostly seawater is generally enough to balance out the melting. Freshly, continuously higher temperatures caused by the global warming have led to greater-than-average summer melting as well as snowfall due to then winters and earlier springs, it creates an disproportion between ocean evaporation and runoff, causing sea levels to increase (Nunez,2019); Lastly, The loss of ice sheet in Greenland and Antarctica is the same as for mountain glisters, the increase in heat causes massive melting of ice and causes the cover of Greenland and Antarctica to melt faster. The melting in western Antarctica has attracted a lot of attention from scientists, especially with the breakdown of the Larsen C ice sheet in 2017 (Nunez,2019). The acceleration of Sea Level Rise (SLR) has become a global threat that may cause harm to other countries around the world (Yusuf, J., et al, 2014). SLR is one of the key problems in this world caused by Climate Change. Climate Change itself has become a global concern by national, international, supranational, and subnational governments in other countries (Yusuf, J, et al, 2014). What people think now is SLR a common problem so it is considered as low politics. Low Politics itself can be defined as a concept that is not obviously vital to the survival of a state in social and economic affairs (Jackson & Sørensen, 2007). If this is considered a low politics problem, we must rethink twice. Because, climate change does not affect one country, instead mostly all countries around the globe. For instance, SLR may cause harm to national security, diplomacy, and military in countries. It also affects a relationship between one country to another. From these simple examples we can assume that rising sea level caused by climate change is not considered as low politics. Politics play an important role in climate change problems. Because, the governments make policies to counter this problem with huge consideration. If the policies succeed to play its part and make benefits to other countries if possible, then the roles of state actors are fulfilled. All types of responses to SLR, including protection, accommodation, forward and backward, have an important and synergistic role to play in an integrated and sequential response to SLR (Henry, O. et al., 2014). Selecting and implementing responses is further challenged through a lack of resources, irritating trade-offs between safety, conservation and economic development, various ways of framing 'sea level rise issues', power relations, and various coastal stakeholders who have conflicting interests in the future development of highly used coastal zones. All of this can happen and will have a significant impact if actors from different countries of the world can work together to solve the SLR problem.

Finland, as one of the countries affected by climate change, sea level rise is seen as not a major problem like other countries. On the other hand, in Finland there are other problems, such as rising land levels and flooding in certain areas. For example, in eastern Finland (the bay of Bothnia), the plains tilt upwards causing the western part to be lower. The land surface rise of 3-9 mm per year is caused by a geological process called the post-glacial uplift (Magnusson, 2017). This land level rise can have a negative impact on the surrounding community, such as disruption of sea transportation activities and the occurrence of land disputes due to the increase in the area of ​​Finland by 700 hectares per year. The western part of Finland is becoming lower, causing rainwater to be easily collected so that flooding is easier in the area. The impact of the flood itself is disruption of the lives of people living in the surrounding area. The floods were deep enough to force people in western Finland to evacuate and lose some of their valuables (Puiu, 2017). Finland is a country that cares about their nature as explained in the nation’s epic poem, Kalevala in Brittlebank (2014) said “Life itself is preserved in the elements of nature. We must not take nature as given or for granted, but as people, we have to sustain nature’s diversity so that our children’s children can fully enjoy nature as it stands.” which means nature supports life, but we as humans also need to support nature as well (Brittlebank, 2014). Therefore, we would like to propose some solutions to prevent and even stop this global threat. The Solutions are beach nourishment along the finnish coast and beaches, dune restoration, and reinforcing shoreline protection. In support of the saying, according to Darby (2019), “Responding to Rising Seas OECD Country Approaches to Talking Coastal Risk”, there are some strategies that OECD countries did, such as beach nourishment and dune restoration, reinforcing shoreline protection through planting vegetation, etc., also preventing new development in areas at risk of flood or erosion through land-use regulation/zoning (Darby, 2019). One of the main causes of rising sea levels is global warming which is the effect of carbon emission, which is why Finland is planning to be carbon neutral by 2035 (Darby, 2019). The plan involves a rapid scaling up of wind and solar power, to electrify heating and transport – all within one investment cycle. Bioenergy use increases 10% under this scenario, mainly from agricultural waste and forest residues, to ensure its sustainability. Peat production as one of the contributors of Finland’s energy will also be stopped across the country, which will leave a lot of people without jobs, that is why this plan must be well-prepared (Darby, 2019).

Bibliography

Yusuf, Juita-Elena, et al., 2014. The Role of Politics and Proximity in Sea Level Rise Policy Salience: A Study of Virginia Legislators Perceptions. Old Dominion University. School of Public Service Faculty Publications.

Jackson, Robert H., and Sørensen, G., 2007. Introduction to international relations: theories and approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Henry, O, et al., 2014. Effect of the processing methodology on satellite altimetry-based global mean sea level rise over the jason-1 operating period. J. Geod., 88 (2014), pp. 351-361

Gornitz, V., 2007. Sea level change, post-glacial. In Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments (V. Gornitz, Ed.). Springer.

Weeman, Katie, & Lynch, Patrick., 2018. New study finds sea level rise accelerating. Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

Johansson, M.M., Kahma, K.K., Boman, H. and J. Launiainen, 2004. Scenarios for sea level on the Finnish coast. Boreal Environmental Research Vol. 9: 153-166.

Amelung, B. and A. Moreno, 2012. Costing the impact of climate change on tourism in Europe: results of the PESETA project. Climatic Change 112:83–100.

Nunez, Christina, 2019. “Sea level rise, explained”, National Geographic, 19 February.

Magnusson, Jon Bjarki, 2017. “The Only Place in the World Where Sea Level Is Falling, Not Rising”, Slate, 7 August.

Puiu, Tibi, 2017. “Why sea levels around Finland and Sweden are dropping while the rest of the world is drowning”, ZME Science, 15 August.

Brittlebank, William, 2014. “Finland – creating a low-carbon country”, Climate Action, 8 January.

Darby, Megan, 2019. “Finland to be carbon neutral by 2035. One of the fastest targets ever set”, Climate Home News, 3 June.

*content for academic purpose