Recently, a study has come to light that simulates how sea level rise due to global warming would affect 184 different parts of the world. The study conducted by Climate Central, together with researchers from Princeton University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists who research and report the facts about climate change and its impact on Earth’s inhabitants.
The study indicates how climate change, due to increased temperatures, would cause a rise in sea level, occupying coastal areas where 10% of the world’s population currently lives. 10% means more than 800 million people. This would mean that this population would lose their home and would be forced to move into the territory.
What consequences would a 3ºC increase in temperature have?
The research article focuses on representing through images two different and possible scenarios, in which in one of them the temperature is 3 degrees Celsius and in the other 1.5 degrees Celsius. Choosing these temperatures is no accident. The scientific community recommends, and thus was signed in the Paris Agreement, limiting global warming by 1.5ºC. And the 3ºC corresponds to the degrees to which we would arrive with the current trajectory, if we continue with the current rhythm.
In this interactive we can see all the simulations proposed by the study. And the risk map, which allows us to explore the rise in sea level in the areas most threatened by coastal flooding in the coming years. The high tide line would invade the land and cause the disappearance of some island countries. The most affected continent would be Asia and among the most affected countries, China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.
But all places would be threatened and this is what the images show. In Spain, several cities would be affected, such as Valencia. The Plaza España in Seville would be flooded and without reaching 3ºC, with 2ºC the water would reach the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona.
The Manhattan coast, the streets of Philadelphia, the airports of New York, etc… would also suffer the effects of the increase in temperature. The Plaza de la Catedral in Havana (Cuba) would be under water, totally submerged.
The images show how Latin America would also be affected by this crisis in places like Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata (Argentina), Puerto Vallarta or Ensenada (Mexico).
Why does the temperature increase?
Global warming, as we know it today, is caused by human action, that’s it is anthropogenic. Due to activities such as energy production, factory activity, transportation, livestock, etc.This causes greenhouse gas emissions to increase throughout the planet, which has resulted in an increase in temperature worldwide.
For decades the sea level has not stopped rising due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which accumulate heat and increase the temperature. For this reason the poles are undergoing a thaw. This melting ice increases the water in the oceans and seas, which causes the growth of the sea line.
What can we do?
According to studies, to avoid tragedy, we should reduce emissions to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5ºC, as agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Only in this way could it be prevented from having to leave the cities on the coast and all the direct catastrophe that an event of these characteristics would entail, both for the environment and for the inhabitants of the planet, adding all the collateral damage.
Currently, government actions are far from being able to limit global warming by 1.5ºC. According to the UN, with the objectives of the policies that have signed the Paris Agreement, it is estimated that emissions will increase by 16% in 2030 and that the temperature will reach 2.7ºC by the end of this century. If something is clear after the study, it is the corroboration that the policies adopted in this decade will be decisive for what happens in the following.