Why is the creation of water from the combustion of hydrocarbons not listed as a cause for rising sea levels?

The Unseen Water: Why Burning Gas Isn’t Flooding Our Coasts (Yet)

We all know burning fossil fuels cranks out carbon dioxide, the big baddie in climate change. But what about the water it creates? You rarely hear about that H2O adding to rising sea levels, right? Well, it’s not because scientists forgot about it. The truth is, compared to other factors, the water from combustion is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to making our oceans swell.

Think about it this way: the real heavy hitters in sea level rise are thermal expansion and melting ice. As the planet heats up, the ocean water expands – kind of like how a balloon gets bigger when you blow more air into it. On top of that, we’ve got glaciers and ice sheets, especially in Greenland and Antarctica, melting faster than an ice cream cone on a hot summer day. All that extra water has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is, unfortunately, our oceans.

So, why isn’t the water from burning gas and oil a bigger deal? It all boils down to scale. The Earth’s water cycle is already massive. The atmosphere is practically swimming with water vapor. Now, when we burn fossil fuels, we do add some water vapor to the mix. A study showed that the amount of water formed from burning fuel each year is around 1.2×10^13 kg. That sounds like a lot, but the atmosphere already holds about 1.3×10^16 kg of water. It’s like adding a shot glass of water to an Olympic-sized swimming pool – it barely makes a ripple.

Here’s the thing: that extra water from combustion doesn’t just hang around in the ocean. It quickly joins the water cycle. It evaporates, turns into clouds, and falls back to Earth as rain or snow, spreading out across the land and sea. It’s a continuous loop, so the water doesn’t stick around in the ocean long enough to cause a noticeable rise in sea levels.

Now, I’m not saying that the water produced by combustion has zero impact. Any extra water in the ocean will have some effect, even if it’s tiny. One study suggested that the water from fossil fuels might account for 1-2% of the total increase in ocean volume. It’s a small number, but as we get better at measuring sea level rise, that contribution might become more important to consider.

And while we’re talking about water, it’s worth mentioning groundwater depletion. We pump a lot of water out of the ground for farming and other uses, and some of that water eventually finds its way to the ocean. This does contribute to sea level rise, but recent research suggests it’s less than we previously thought.

Bottom line? While burning hydrocarbons does create water, it’s not a major player in the sea level rise game. The real culprits are thermal expansion and melting ice, driven by greenhouse gas emissions. So, the focus needs to stay on cutting those emissions to protect our coastlines. Think of it this way: worrying about the water from combustion while ignoring carbon emissions is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to tackle the big problems first.