Do You Need to Worry about Rising Sea Levels? People are getting very worried about rising sea levels. Local governments are discussing “planned retreat” for coastal settlements, and owners of beach houses are worried about losing insurance cover and ending up with million-dollar views they can’t sell. Do you need to panic? Here’s a few things to consider. The sea level has been rising in New Zealand, where I live, at an average of 1.8 mm per year over the last 120 years. That’s close to the global average. To picture that amount clearly, it’s about the width of a grain of rice every year. Next time you’re at the beach, watching the waves crashing onto the shore, think about a grain of rice. “Oh,” you say, “but it all adds up. My father’s friend, Jed, says the sea is coming up all around his beach house, and he says it wasn’t like that 30 years ago.” It’s very nasty to experience the sea’s inevitable encroachment, but let’s remain calm and focus. Thirty years at 1.8 mm