FLOODED FUTURE: Global vulnerability to sea level rise worse than previously understood

Posted on: 11/01/2019 - Updated on: 2/27/2020

Posted by

CAKE Team

Published

Abstract

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • As a result of heat-trapping pollution from human activities, rising sea levels could within three decades push chronic floods higher than land currently home to 300 million people 

  • By 2100, areas now home to 200 million people could fall permanently below the high tide line

  • The new figures are the result of an improved global elevation dataset produced by Climate Central using machine learning, and revealing that coastal elevations are significantly lower than previously understood across wide areas

  • The threat is concentrated in coastal Asia and could have profound economic and political consequences within the lifetimes of people alive today 

  • Findings are documented in a new peer-reviewed paper in the journal Nature Communications

 

Keywords

Document Type
Sector Addressed
Habitat/Biome Type
Target Climate Changes and Impacts

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