“People’s human rights do not disappear because their homes do!” @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres
World Meteorological Organization @WMO recently released a report:
“Global Sea-level Rise & Implications”
Here’s a 🧵 on Sea-Level Rise!
Save it to your notes 📝 #UPSC
“We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale & we would see ever-fiercer competition for fresh water,land & other resources. The impact of rising seas is already creating new sources of instability & conflict.”
•India,China,Bangladesh & the Netherlands face the highest threat of SLR
Mega-cities impacted due to SLR:
•Shanghai, Dhaka, Bangkok, Jakarta, MUMBAI, Maputo, Lagos, Cairo, London, Copenhagen, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires & Santiago.
VULNERABLE POPULATION
•Nearly 11% of the global population(896 million people) lived within the Low Elevation Coastal Zone in 2020: 1 out of every 10 people on earth
•Will potentially increase to over 1 billion people by 2050.
•They face escalating climate compounded risks
POPULATION AT RISK:
•The population potentially exposed to a 100-year coastal flood is projected to increase by 20% if global mean sea level rises by 0.15m relative to 2020 levels
•It doubles at a 0.75m rise & triples at 1.4m rise in mean sea level without population change
IMPACT ON COASTAL AREAS:
•Continued & accelerating sea-level rise will:
-encroach on coastal settlements & infrastructure &
-commit low-lying coastal ecosystems to submergence & loss
SALTWATER INTRUSION
•As sea levels rise along the coast, salt water can move onto the land
•It can decimate jobs & entire economies in industries like agriculture,fisheries & tourism
•It can damage vital infrastructure, such as transportation systems, hospitals & schools.
Impact of URBANISATION on SLR:
•If trends in urbanization in exposed areas continue, it will exacerbate the impacts, with more challenges where energy, water and other services are constrained
•Urban systems are critical for enabling climate resilient development
IMPACT ON FOOD SECURITY
•SLR & Climate change will pressure on food production & access,especially in vulnerable regions
•Lead to an increase in frequency, intensity & severity of droughts, floods,heatwaves
•Impact World’s BREADBASKETS: Fertile deltas along the Nile, Mekong
SLR is REINFORCED BY:
•The impacts of average sea-level rise are boosted by storm surges & tidal variations.
•This was the situation during the landfall of hurricane Sandy in New York & Cyclone Idai in Mozambique.
Devastation in many parts of the world:
•CARIBBEAN:Rising seas have decimated livelihoods in tourism & agriculture
•SLR & other climate impacts are already forcing people to relocate in Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands.
•Many are made STATELESS by the sea level rise
IMPACT ON SMALL ISLAND DEVELOPING STATES:
“Earth is more likely on a path to warming that amounts to a DEATH SENTENCE for countries vulnerable to that rise, including many small island nations” @antonioguterres
•SLR raises issues of their survival & continuation as states
⬇️
•They are among the lowest emitters of GHGs that drive climate change & SLR
•Yet they face the most severe consequences
•To expect small island states to shoulder the burden of SLR, without assistance from the international community will be the PINNACLE OF INEQUITIES
“We know the risks, & we see the instabilities that we are going to face.
It is critical to invest in prevention today, rather than address the implications of food scarcity & mass migration tomorrow.” @UN_PGA
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