Climate change is causing sea levels to rise significantly and a shocking report has revealed that by 2050, a number of cities across the world could be submerged in water – including one in the UK. Research organisation Climate Central used data from reports by The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to get the measure of how severe the impacts could be and the results are chilling.
The Netherlands’ capital Amsterdam is one of the cities that are at risk of being overflow by the sea. Parts of The Netherlands are already six metres below sea level and despite the Dutch being experts when it comes to flood defence technqiues, sea levels are currently rising more than twice as fast as they were in the 20th Century – a worrying sign, indeed.
It can be easy to overlook the severity of climate change if you are not directly affected by it. However, the report shows that a UK city could also be at risk of being submerged within decades. Peterborough and the surrounding Cambridgeshire area will be directly hit by rising levels in the North Sea which impacts the River Nene.
The pedictions could result in Peterborough becoming inhabitable. Additionally, Wisbech, Ramsey, Chatteris and Manea could also be in danger of flooding according to various coastal flood maps.
Across the globe in Asia, Thailand’s capital, Bangkok has over 10% of it’s residents living on land that could be underwater by 2050. The city sits just 1.5 metres above the sea and is currently sinking.
It’s also built on dense clay soil, which doesn’t help and in fact, spots such as Tha Kham and Samut Prakan could be underwater as early as 2030.
More cities in Europe, Asia, Africa and both North and South America are all at risk of being swallowed up by the surging sea levels, as a result of climate change.
The 10 cities that could be underwater by 2050:
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Venice, Italy
- Bangkok, Thailand
- New Orleans, United States
- Kolkata, India
- Miami, United States
- Shanghai, China
- Male, Maldives