Sea Level Rise
http://worldatlas.com/aatlas/newart/oceans.gif
In the Oil to Water page we calculated that humanity produces 8 billion kg of water each day from combustion. This comes out to 30 trillion kg of water per year. And all of this eventually reaches the oceans. This sounds significant!
Don't fret yet. The oceans hold an ENORMOUS amount of water. 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water. As a result, all the water added to the oceans from combustion causes sea levels to rise only about 1/100 of a millimeter per year. This means that every ounce of fossil fuel (oil, coal, gasoline, natural gas, etc) could be combusted and the oceans would rise only a few millimeters. Compare that to other potential causes of sea level rise:
| Sources of Global Sea Level Rise | |
| Water source | Sea level rise (meters) |
| East Antarctic Ice Sheet | 64.8 |
| West Antarctic Ice Sheet | 8.1 |
| Antarctic Peninsula | 0.5 |
| Greenland | 6.6 |
| All other Ice | 0.5 |
| Combustion | 0.001 |
| Williams and Hall 1993 | |
Its clear from the table above that water added to the oceans directly as a combustion byproduct is negligible compared to ice caps melting. It shouldn't be overlooked, however, that the indirect effects of combustion (such as the greenhouse effect) may accelerate melting of ice sheets, which could have a significant impact on global sea levels.
Now let's investigate whether water vapor from
combustion could significantly contribute to climate change.