Imagine living on the Ghana coast, and having to abandon your home because your village is flooding. Unfortunately, this is a reality, as every few years, sea levels rise and homes must be abandoned.
According to new research, climate scientists have found that even in the best case scenarios, water will flood low-lying coastal regions, and as a result, the homes of 1 of out every 10 individuals worldwide.
This comes as an alarming surprise, as scientists discovered their previous projection was doubled; a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change anticipated a sea level rise of 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century. They’ve now discovered that is too modest: “The sea-level rise may well exceed one meter (3.28 feet) by 2100 if we continue on our path of increasing emissions,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, professor at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The lowest possibility is about one metre.
The biggest factors involved are the melting polar ice sheets and glaciers. The quicker individuals begin to limit their carbon dioxide emissions, the better we will counteract the most extreme scenarios.
Professor Rahmstorf specifies that the next 50 years are most crucial, otherwise, the planet will be locked into sea level increases of “tens of metres”. He adds: “They will burden many generations coming after us.”
The greatest affects are expected to be low-lying regions, among them most of southeast Asia, parts of Africa, island states, and coastal British towns.
Read the full story here.
Image courtesy of transitionculture.org
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