According to the preliminary report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), coastal cities are on the “front line” of global warmingcaused by greenhouse gas emissions.
“Difficult decisions will have to be made as sea levels rise, the frequency and intensity of floods and storms increase, ocean acidification increases, and heat waves intensify,” according to the report.
The rise in sea level is due in particular to the melting of ice caps and threatens large coastal cities, but also small islands, arctic communities and deltas.
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A clearly affected by this problem is Venice, a city in which the rise in sea level is “continuous and irreversible” and is causing the subsidence of the ground and an unprecedented rise in water.
The average growth rate remained at 2.53 millimeters per year for a long period (1872-2019), but that value doubles to 5.34 millimeters per year taking the period 1993-2019.
The Venetian Lagoon is connected to the Adriatic Sea through three mouths and the city has a defense system to limit the entrance of the waters.
The former maritime power now represents the most endangered heritage in the Mediterranean and the current installation of mobile barriers will be insufficient with a rise in sea level of more than 30 cm. With 75 cm, the city could be flooded for six months.
The picture is affecting the entire country: in the Alps deglaciation tendencies are “evident” due to high summer temperatures and reduced rainfall, as in Valle d’Aosta and Piedmont.
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What happens in the rest of the world?
About 10% of the world’s population lives less than 10 meters above sea level. and cities like Jakarta are already sinking, while some small island nations, especially in the Pacific, are at risk of being engulfed by the waves.
“Many cities are in exactly the wrong place with sea level rise,” making them “deadly,” according to Ben Strauss, president of the NGO Climate Central.
Some 300 million people could be threatened by annual flooding by 2050, according to a Climate Central study cited by the IPCC. They also predict that the sea level will rise 60 cm by the end of the 21st century even if warming is limited to below +2 ºC, as foreseen by the Paris Agreement.
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Sources: gestion.pe, Noticiasambientales.com.