As humans continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, oceans have tempered the effect. The seas have absorbed more than ninety percent of the heat from these gases. But itis taking a toll on our oceans. Last year set a new record for ocean heating. Many people think of global warming and climate change as synonyms. But scientists prefer to use climatechange when describing the complex shifts now affecting weather and climate systems of our planet. Rising seas is one of those climate change effects. Average sea levels have swelledover eight inches since the last decade of the nineteenth century. The change in sea levels is linked to three primary factors all induced by ongoing global climate change. The first factoris thermal expansion. Water expands on heating up. About half of the sea level rise over the past twenty five years is attributable to warmer oceans simply occupying more space. Meltingof glaciers is another important factor. Large ice formations such as mountain glaciers naturally melt a bit each summer. In the winter snows primarily from evaporated seawater aregenerally sufficient to balance out the melting. Recently though persistently higher temperatures caused by global warming have led to greater than average summer melting as well asdiminished snowfall due to later winters and earlier springs. That creates an imbalance between runoff and ocean evaporation. This in turn causes sea levels to rise. As with mountainglaciers increased heat is causing the massive ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica to melt more quickly. Scientists also believe that meltwater from above and seawater frombelow is seeping beneath these ice sheets. This is effectively lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the sea. Melting in West Antarctica has drawnconsiderable focus from scientists. Glaciers in East Antarctica are also showing signs of destabilizing. When sea levels rise as rapidly as they have been even a small increase can havedevastating effects on coastal habitats farther inland. It can cause destructive erosion and wetland flooding. It can cause aquifer and agricultural soil contamination with salt. It alsocauses lost habitat for fish and birds and plants. Higher sea levels are coinciding with more dangerous hurricanes and typhoons that move more slowly and drop more rain. Thiscontributes to more powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path. Already flooding in low lying coastal areas is forcing people to migrate to higher ground. Millionsmore are vulnerable from flood risk and other climate change effects. The prospect of higher coastal water levels threatens basic services such as internet access. Since much of theunderlying communications infrastructure lies in the path of rising seas. As a result of these risks many coastal cities are already planning adaptation measures to cope with the longterm prospects of higher sea levels. These often come at a considerable cost. Building seawalls and rethinking roads is being done. Even panting mangroves or other vegetation to absorbwater are all being undertaken. Of course communities vulnerable to rising seas can only go so far in holding back the tide. In the Marshall Islands people are forced to choose betweenrelocating or building up the land. Residents will need help from other nations to undertake the expensive option.