Everyone disagrees on the causes, the solutions and the reasons why the world’s atmosphere is heating up and the glaciers are melting. But the fact of the matter is that it is true – the earth is warming, glaciers and mountain caps are melting and the seas are rising.

A US study on has predicted that its West Coast will see an ocean several inches higher in coming decades, with most of California expected to get sea levels a half foot higher by 2030.

The study by the National Research Council gives planners their best look yet at how melting ice sheets and warming oceans associated with climate change will raise sea levels along the country’s Pacific coast. It is generally consistent with earlier global projections.

Although the six inches expected by 2030 seem minor, the report estimated that sea levels there will be an average of three feet higher by 2100 – this is potentially catastrophic. Many Pacific island nations will be inundated and may indeed perish. We may even see wholesale evacuations of entire countries full of people. Other low lying countries may also be severely affected as well as cities that are situated on the banks of rivers. Let us also not forget that Malta and Gozo are islands and that we too have our low lying areas are vulnerable.

“Anything close to the seas is vulnerable,” the authors wrote. In fact, the report noted that some computer models suggest storms will be stronger as global warming progresses. Sea levels rise for two reasons due to global warming.

Warmer water expands, which can cause as many as 23 inches of sea level to rise by 2100, according to the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Warmer temperatures also cause ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica to melt slowly, adding another foot or more to sea levels by 2100, scientists said.

Those estimates were for the planet as a whole. Some places will see higher seas, while others will get less dramatic increases.

Globally, sea levels have risen about eight inches over the last century, but the rate has been increasing significantly. The world is talking about cutting carbon dioxide emissions, but at this point in time, even that is probably not enough – we need to take preventive action.

Many might think that this is pie in the sky, but has Malta even begun to consider flood banks? Have we considered dykes? Have we considered dams? Have we considered how people are going to be affected in places like Msida, or Sliema or Xemxija? London, Amsterdam and Venice are just a few of the places in Europe that have started thinking ahead, and so we should too. We cannot ignore this forever. 2030 and 2100 are not that far away – maybe the prophecies were right after all, maybe one day ships will sail over a place where islands once sat. They will be right if we do not act now.