The earth is quickly warming and causing record drought, fatal floods and rare Arctic melting events. It also leads to a gradual increase in sea level that scientists believe will last for decades.
A recent analysis from the non-profit research group Climate Central reveals that some 50 large coastal towns would have to adopt “non-precedented” adaptation policies to avoid rising oceans from swallowing their most populous regions.
The planet is around 1.2 Celsius hotter than the pre-industrial level, climate experts have revealed in August. They believe temperatures should remain below 1.5% – a key threshold for preventing the most catastrophic climate-crisis consequences.
In the most optimistic scenario, however, even when global greenhouse gas emissions start to drop today and decrease to net-zero by 2050, the global temperature remains above the 1.5° level before it decreases.
The globe can grow by up to 3 degrees in less hopeful situations, when emissions continue to rise after 2050, as early as the 2060s or 2070s.
Climate Central experts have been analyzing regions of the globe that are most vulnerable to the rising sea levels, often centered in Asia-Pacific, via global elevation and population statistics.
The research reports that small island countries at risk of ‘near complete land loss,’ with about 600 million flood vulnerable under 3 degree warming scenarios, eight of the top ten regions susceptible to the increase in sea level in Asia.
According to the Climate Central Analysis, the five nations with the greatest vulnerability to long-term sea levels are China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The researchers also emphasize that in recent years, these are nations that have increased the ability to combustion.
A research published by the journal Nature in September revealed that about 60 percent of the rest of the world’s oil and natural gas, and that 90 percent should remain on the earth by 2050 to reduce global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial level.
