By 2100, the sea level will rise by 65 centimeters. Around the planet, dozens of coastal megacities, where millions of people live, fall into the flood zone.
Residents of many coastal regions of the Earth are just right to prepare for an evacuation. A group of American scientists led by Robert Nerem (RSNerem) from the University of Colorado found that the level of the oceans is rising faster than previously thought (the study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). This is due to global warming, which is leading to the melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. However, until recently, scientists could not accurately assess the speed of this process.
Robert Nerem and his colleagues decided to analyze satellite data that had been collected since 1993. It turned out that over the past 25 years, the water level in the ocean has increased by 7 centimeters. However, the rate of sea water rise is accelerating by 0.084 millimeters per year.
If today the water level rises by 2.9 mm annually, then by the end of the century the rate of water rise will reach 10 mm per year. This means that by 2100 the sea level will rise by 65 centimeters! The worldwide flood threatens, first of all, the island states. One of the first to go under water is the Maldives, which are a group of more than a thousand atoll islands in the Indian Ocean. Most of this tourist paradise rises just 1 meter above the water surface. The authorities of this small state are aware of the threat hanging over the country and a few years ago they created a special fund to which a part of the profits from the tourism business is allocated. With this money, the government is going to buy new land, where it plans to resettle the Maldivians when the islands begin to sink. Negotiations on the purchase of a new homeland are underway with the authorities of neighboring India and Sri Lanka.
In Europe, the main blow of the elements will fall on the Netherlands. The Dutch do not intend to give an inch of land to the sea and are enthusiastically implementing the Delta project, a system of protective structures that is considered one of the largest engineering projects in the world. It is worth adding that across the planet, dozens of coastal megacities, where millions of people live, fall into the flood zone.
Millionaire cities at risk of flooding:
1. Shanghai (PRC) - 24.1 million people
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2. New York (USA) - 23.9
3. Los Angeles (USA) -17.7
4. Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 14.6
5. Guangzhou (PRC) - 14
6. Mumbai (India) - 12.5
7. Shenzhen (PRC) - 12
8. Bangkok (Thailand) - 5.7
9. Calcutta (India) - 5
10. Guayaquil (Ecuador) - 2.6
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV