Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy a new homeland

Maldives: typical housing almost lost to sealevelrise

London, November 10 2008 - The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has told the Guardian.
www.guardian.co.uk: Paradise almost lost: Maldives seek to buy a new homeland
guardian.co.uk: The last days of paradise
www.cnn.com: Sinking island nation seeks new home

How much will sea level rise?
London, September 4 2008 - How much will sea level rise is the question people have been putting a lot of thought into since the IPCC AR4 report came out. We analysed what was in the report quite carefully at the time and pointed out that the allowance for dynamic ice sheet processes was very uncertain, and actually precluded setting a upper limit on what might be expected. The numbers that appeared in some headlines (up to 59 cm by 2100) did not take that uncertainty into account.
www.realclimate.org: How much will sea level rise?

Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m'
London, September 4 2008 - Sea levels globally are very unlikely to rise by more than 2m (7ft) this century, scientists conclude.
Major increases would have to be fuelled by a faster flow of glaciers on the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets.
But writing in the journal Science, a US team concludes that a rise of 2m would need glaciers to reach speeds that are "physically untenable".
news.bbc.co.uk: Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m'
www.eurekalert.org: Global sea-rise levels by 2100 my be lower than some predict, says CU-Boulder study
sciencenow.sciencemag.org: Seas to Rise Faster This Century
treasury.gov.uk (Stern Report): Sea level rise as a defining feature of dangerous interference with the climate system

Analysis of past glacial melting shows potential for increased Greenland ice melt and sea level rise
Madison, (Wisconsin), August 31 2008 - Researchers have yet to reach a consensus on how much and how quickly melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will contribute to sea level rise. To shed light on this question, scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research analyzed the disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, the last ice sheet to melt completely in the Northern Hemisphere and the closest example of what can be expected to happen to the Greenland Ice Sheet in the next century.
www.eurekalert.org: Analysis of past glacial melting shows potential for increased Greenland ice melt and sea level rise
www.eurekalert.org: Ice Age lesson predicts a faster rise in sea level

West Africa: Coastline to be submerged by 2099

Slum housing in the Ebute Metta district of Lagos, Nigeria, September 2007 / Photo: Dulue Mbachu/IRIN

Accra, 25 August 2008 (IRIN) - Swathes of West Africa’s coastline extending from the orange dunes in Mauritania to the dense tropical forests in Cameroon will be underwater by the end of the century as a direct consequence of climate change, environmental experts warn.
"The coastline [as it is now] will be completely changed by the end of this century because the sea level is rising along the coast at around two centimetres every year," said Stefan Cramer, Nigeria director of Heinrich Boll Stiftung, a German environmental NGO.
West Africa: Coastline to be submerged by 2099

Stark warning on Britain's shrinking coast
London, August 18 2008 - Stretches of Britain's coastline are doomed and plans will soon have to be drawn up to evacuate people from the most threatened areas, the new head of the Environment Agency warns today.
Britain must surrender some erosion-hit areas to the sea, said Lord Smith, a former cabinet minister, as it will be impossible to defend them all from being overwhelmed.
www.independent.co.uk: Stark warning on Britain's shrinking coast
www.telegraph.co.uk: Evacuation plans needed due to coastal erosion, says Environment Agency

Key ocean mission goes into orbit
Vandenberg Airbase (FLA/US), June 20, 2008 - A space mission that will be critical to our understanding of climate change has launched from California.
The Jason-2 satellite is launched on a mission to measure the shape of the world's oceans and track sea level rise. The Jason-2 satellite will be taking readings with an accuracy of better than 4cm.
Its data will track not only sea level rise but reveal how the great mass of waters are moving around the globe.
news.bbc.co.uk: Key ocean mission goes into orbit

Disaster-Prone Deltas Next Climate Risk - Ecologist

Washington (US), June 16, 2008 - Some of the world's most productive and populous places -- river deltas from the Mekong to the Mississippi -- are ripe for disasters made worse by climate change, an ecological catastrophe expert said.
In fact, said marine biologist Deborah Brosnan, these disasters are already occurring.
www.planetark.com: Disaster-Prone Deltas Next Climate Risk
www.tsunamireefactionfund.org / Deborah Brosnan: If Nature Bats Last, Are We On Her Team?

How Bangladesh Is Preparing for Climate Change
May 12 2008 - Dutch engineers are helping people in Bangladesh build dikes, polders and water-retaining structures to protect them against recurring floods. Despite climate change, the country could even grow. Ultimately, though, the greatest threat in Bangladesh comes not from water but from political chaos.
www.spiegel.de: How Bangladesh Is Preparing for Climate Change

World Sea Levels To Rise 1.5m by 2100

Sea level rise in New York (source: reuters.com)

Vienna, April 16/22, 2008 - Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people, new research showed on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com: Sea level Forecast is Widely Inaccurate, according to New Study
www.planetark.com: World Sea Levels To Rise 1.5m by 2100
news.bbc.co.uk: Forecast for big sea level rise

Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare

Abdul Majid is feeding his ducks

Dhaka, April 13 / 15, 2008 - Abdul Majid has been forced to move 22 times in as many years, a victim of the annual floods that ravage Bangladesh. There are millions like Majid, 65, in Bangladesh and in the future there could be many millions more if scientists' predictions of rising seas and more intense droughts and storms come true.
www.reuters.com: Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare
See also the ZDF special: Wenn das ewige Eis schmilzt / Rückkehr der Sintflut (Apr 15)
www.hinduonnet.com: Stranded in the Sunderbans (Feb 24)
www.youtube.com: The 2007 flood

Plan to allow sea to flood Norfolk villages
London, March 28 2008 - Large swathes of Norfolk, including six villages, could be flooded under a controversial plan to deal with the effects of climate change.
The proposal would see Britain effectively admit defeat in the battle to maintain coastal defences and around 16,000 acres (25 square miles) of land in the Norfolk Broads would be allowed to flood.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Plan to allow sea to flood Norfolk villages
www.telegraph.co.uk: Norfolk Broads 'could be lost to sea in a year'

Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier
London, March 22 2008 - A fear that sea levels will rise far faster than predicted this century has led to a revision of the plan to protect London from a devastating flood caused by the sort of storm surge in the North Sea that resulted in the closure of the Thames Barrier March 21 st.
www.telegraph.co.uk:Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier

Greenhouse Gas Increase from U.S. Power Plants Highest Since 1998
Washington, March 18 2008 - Carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants rose 2.9 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to data analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project. That's the largest annual increase in nine years, and it outpaced demand for electricity, according to the report.
The impact will last well beyond a year, warns EIP Director Eric Schaeffer: "Because CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of between 50 and 200 years, today's emissions could cause global warming for up to two centuries to come."
If that's not depressing enough, try this on for size: Nine scientists, including ubiquitous NASA climate guru James Hansen, have written a draft paper saying that the globe has already passed the safe point for atmospheric CO2 concentration, and we should rapidly reduce emissions to approximately 1988 levels. Which is easier said than done.
www.environmentalintegrity.org: Greenhouse Gas Increase from U.S. Power Plants Highest Since 1998
www.grist.org: An interview with renowned climate scientist James Hansen
www.iop.org / Jim Hansen: Scientific reticence and sea level rise

Dutch to explore new ways to defend coastline
Amsterdam (Nl), February 1 , 2008 - The Dutch government said on Friday it would explore new ways of protecting its coastline from the effects of climate change, including the use of ground-breaking sensor technology.
www.reuters.com: Dutch to explore new ways to defend coastline

Carbon Cuts a Must to Halt Warming - US Scientists
San Fransisco (US), December 17, 2007 - There is already enough carbon in Earth's atmosphere to ensure that sea levels will rise several feet (meters) in coming decades and summertime ice will vanish from the North Pole, scientists warned on Thursday.
To mitigate global warming's worst effects, including severe drought and flooding, people must not only cut current carbon emissions but also remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, they said.
www.planetark.org: Carbon Cuts a Must to Halt Warming - US Scientists

Seas could rise twice as high as predicted: study
Washington, December 16, 2007 - The world's sea levels could rise twice as high this century as U.N. climate scientists have predicted, according to researchers who looked at what happened more than 100,000 years ago, the last time Earth got this hot.
news.bbc.co.uk: Rising seas 'to beat predictions'
www.reuters.com: Seas could rise twice as high as predicted: study
www.climateark.org: Sea levels could rise faster than predicted, scientists warn
www.nature.com: High rates of sea-level rise during the last interglacial period

Islanders seek climate summit help
Kilu, (Papua New Guinea), December 5, 2007 - Squealing pigs lit out for the bush and Filomena Taroa herded the grandkids to higher ground last week when the sea rolled in deeper than anyone had ever seen.
What was happening? "I don't know," the sturdy, barefoot grandmother told a visitor. "I'd never experienced it before."
www.cnn.com: Islanders seek climate summit help

City-scale flooding disasters predicted by 2070

London, December 4 2007 - Millions more people across the world are going to be at risk from flooding in the future (2070) because of climate change and population increases.
And as many as 150 million people in the world's major cities - more than three times the 40m currently - will have to rely on flood defences for protection by 2070, according to a major new study.
But even then city-scale disasters are likely to become regular events across the world.
The gloomy forecasts come from the first stage of the largest study on urban coastal flood exposure ever undertaken.
The total value of assets exposed in the 136 port cities analysed is 3,000 billion (three trillion) dollars -- or around five percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005, it says.
Miami, Greater New York, New Orleans, Osaka-Kobe, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Nagoya, Tampa-St. Petersburg (Florida) and Virginia Beach (Virginia) are the most valuable pieces of real estate at risk.
>www.telegraph.co.uk: City-scale flooding disasters predicted by 2070
>www.telegraph.co.uk: Table of cities most exposed to coastal flooding
>tyndall.uea.ac.uk: Climate change could triple population at risk from coastal flooding by 2070 (pdf)
>www.oecd.org: Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes (pdf)
>www.planetark.com: Insurers Call for 25-Year Flood Strategy
>www.terradaily.com: Climate change: Asia's mega-deltas in frontline from flood risk

Climate change may wipe some Indonesian islands off map
Jakarta, December 3, 2007 - Many of Indonesia's islands may be swallowed up by the sea if world leaders fail to find a way to halt rising sea levels at this week's climate change conference on the resort island of Bali.
www.alertnet.org: Climate change may wipe some Indonesian islands off map

Island Nations Plan for Rising Seas, Mass Migration
Male (Maldives), November 15, 2007 - Countries usually evacuate their citizens because of war or a sudden and catastrophic natural disaster. For the Pacific island state of Kiribati, the climate change disaster facing the nation is no less dramatic but on a slower time scale and means preparing its 100,000 inhabitants for lives in nations less vulnerable to wild weather and rising seas.
www.planetark.com: Island Nations Plan for Rising Seas, Mass Migration
www.planetark.com: Bangladesh and Eastern India on Cyclone Alert

Climate change threatens human rights: small island states
Male, (Maldives), November 13, 2007 - Representatives of 26 of the world's small island states met in the Maldives capital Male on Tuesday to draft a resolution identifying climate change as a threat to human rights.
www.reuters.com: Climate change threatens human rights: small island states

Rising Seas Threaten Africa's Coastline - Unep
Johannesburg, November 9, 2007 - Africa's coastal infrastructure faces increasing danger of erosion from rising sea levels caused by climate change, the head of the UN Environment Programme said on Thursday.
www.planetark.org: Rising Seas Threaten Africa's Coastline - Unep

Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History
New York, September, 24/25 2007 - Ultimately, rising seas will likely swamp the first American settlement in Jamestown, Va., as well as the Florida launch pad that sent the first American into orbit, many climate scientists are predicting. In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased.
Global warming - through a combination of melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warmer waters expanding - is expected to cause oceans to rise by about 39 inches. It will happen regardless of any future actions to curb greenhouse gases, several leading scientists say. And it will reshape the nation.
edition.cnn.com: Rising Seas Likely to Flood U.S. History
www.abqtrib.com: Seas will rise 39 inches in next century, scientests say History

Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century - or 25 metres?
London, August 25 2007 - When Al Gore predicted that climate change could lead to a 20-foot rise in sea levels, critics called him alarmist. After all, the International Panel on Climate Change, which receives input from top scientists, estimates surges of only 18 to 59 centimetres in the next century.
But a study led by James Hansen, the head of the climate science program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University, suggests that current estimates for how high the seas could rise are way off the mark - and that in the next 100 years melting ice could sink cities in the United States to Bangladesh.
www.theglobeandmail.com: Will oceans surge 59 centimetres this century - or 25 metres?
www.guardian.co.uk: Scientists warn on climate tipping points

United Kingdom: Second Thames flood barrier planned

London's drowning in the movie The Flood

London, August 25 2007 - A new £20 billion Thames barrier to save London from a potentially disastrous flooding threat is the centrepiece of a series of measures planned by the Government.
news.bbc.co.uk: Second Thames flood barrier planned
news.bbc.co.uk: London's drowning
www.telegraph.co.uk: Second Thames flood barrier planned

Global Warming Causing Mediterranean Sea to Rise, Threatening Egypt's Lush Nile Delta
Alexandria, Egypt, August 24 2007 - Millions of Egyptians could be forced permanently from their homes, the country's ability to feed itself devastated.
That's what likely awaits this already impoverished and overpopulated nation by the end of the century, if predictions about climate change hold true. The World Bank describes Egypt as particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, saying it faces potentially "catastrophic" consequences.
www.enn.com: Global Warming Causing Mediterranean Sea to Rise, Threatening Egypt's Lush Nile Delta

Sea Rise Seen Outpacing Forecasts Due To Antarctica
Ny Alesund, August 23 2007 - A thaw of Antarctic ice is outpacing predictions by the UN climate panel and could in the worst case drive up world sea levels by 2 metres (6 ft) by 2100, a leading expert said on Wednesday.
www.planetark.com: Sea Rise Seen Outpacing Forecasts Due To Antarctica

S.O.S.: Pacific islanders battle to save what is left of their country from rising seas

Tuvalu (TU), July 16, 2007 - Veu Lesa, a 73-year-old villager in Tuvalu, does not need scientific reports to tell him that the sea is rising. The evidence is all around him. The beaches of his childhood are vanishing. The crops that used to feed his family have been poisoned by salt water. In April, he had to leave his home when a "king tide" flooded it, showering it with rocks and debris.
news.independent.co.uk: S.O.S.: Pacific islanders battle to save what is left of their country from rising seas

London's small but relentless dip
London, July 12 2007 - A new assessment of land and sea level changes in London and the Thames estuary has been made by scientists.
news.bbc.co.uk: London's small but relentless dip

Sea level rise might be several meters
Scientists: Planet Earth today is in "imminent peril"
London, June 19 2007 - The Earth today stands in imminent peril and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.
They also implicitly criticise the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for underestimating the scale of sea-level rises this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets.
Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is in "imminent peril".
In a densely referenced scientific paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A some of the world's leading climate researchers describe in detail why they believe that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the "gravest threat" of climate change.
environment.independent.co.uk: Scientists: Planet Earth today is in "imminent peril"

Steffen: IPCC underestimates sealevel rise
Global Warming and the Melting of Greenland
Swiss Camp, Greenland Ice Cap - June 7, 2007 - (Reuters) - Dr. Konrad Steffen is the director of University of Colorado at Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and a veteran researcher of Arctic climate. He discussed the accelerating melting of Greenland's ice cap and its effects on global ocean levels in an interview with Reuters on May 18 at his field research camp.
www.planetark.com: Global Warming and the Melting of Greenland

Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point

Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall according to a NASA survey done between 1992 and 2002. It also had a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documented for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves. Credit: NASA/SVS

Washington, May 30 / June 4 2007 - NASA and Columbia University Earth Institute research finds that human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth’s climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet.
Lead author James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, concludes: “If global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise at the rate of the past decade, this research shows that there will be disastrous effects, including increasingly rapid sea level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones.”
Hansen's boss, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, said in a radio interview that while global warming is changing Earth's climate, he's not convinced that it is "a problem we must wrestle with."
The NASA chief -- whose agency has come under fire in Congress for cutting several programs designed to monitor climate change -- also says it's "rather arrogant" for people to take the position that today's climate is the optimal one.
environment.independent.co.uk 03062007: 'Global warming is three times faster than worst predictions'
www.ens-newswire.com 01062007: Earth's Climate Approaches Dangerous Tipping Point
www.nasa.gov 05302007: Research Finds That Earth's Climate is Approaching 'Dangerous' Point
pubs.giss.nasa.gov: Dangerous human-made interference with climate: a GISS modelE study (pdf 6,1 mb)
www.sfgate.com 01062007: Head of NASA downplays global warming
pravda.ru 01062007: NASA chief says global warming may not be a concern, but scientists criticize comments
www.npr.org: NASA Chief Questions Urgency of Global Warming
www.npr.org: NASA Scientist Hansen Critiques Bush's Strategy
www.panda.org / Climate Witness: Robert Swan, Antarctica
www.sciencedaily.com: Earth's climate close to tipping point

'45 cm rise in sea-level will destroy Sundarbans'
New Delhi, April 24 - Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove, faces a threat from global warming and a mere 45 cm rise in the sea level will destroy 75 per cent of the forest spread over 10,000 sq km in West Bengal and Bangladesh, a UN study said.
www.hindu.com: '45 cm rise in sea-level will destroy Sundarbans'

Rising seas threaten Bergen
Bergen, April 23, 2007 - Climate change and rising sea levels are posing huge threats to the historic city of Bergen on Norway's west coast. Large areas of downtown face submersion, and the ancient wharf known as Bryggen is especially vulnerable.
www.aftenposten.no: Rising seas threaten Bergen

That sinking feeling
Sydney, April 22, 2007 - The scientific evidence is undeniable. And sea-level rises inevitable. So why is no one interested in the plight of our nearest neighbours, asks Erin O'Dwyer.
www.smh.com.au: That sinking feeling
news.independent.co.uk: Bangladesh: A nation in fear of drowning

Cities at Risk of Rising Sea Levels

London, March 28, 2007 - More than two-thirds of the world's large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday.
www.physorg.com: Cities at Risk of Rising Sea Levels
www.climateark.org: One in Ten at Risk from Rising Seas, Storms, Study Suggests

Tiny island with a global warning
London, March 28, 2007 - (BBC) - The tiny Indian island of Ghoramara, in the delta where the River Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal, is a symbol of the crisis the world is facing as it struggles to feed a growing population.
news.bbc.co.uk: The island of Ghoramara is gradually disappearing

The IPCC sea level numbers
London, March 27, 2007 - (BBC) - The sea level rise numbers published in the new IPCC report (the Fourth Assessment Report, AR4) have already caused considerable confusion. Many media articles and weblogs suggested there is good news on the sea level issue, with future sea level rise expected to be a lot less compared to the previous IPCC report (the Third Assessment Report, TAR).
Some articles reported that IPCC had reduced its sea level projection from 88 cm to 59 cm, some even said it was reduced from 88 cm to 43 cm ....
www.realclimate.org: The IPCC sea level numbers

Island people swallowed by the sea

London, 03 March 2007 - This week saw the launch of International Polar Year, an initiative in which scientists from 60 countries will study the Arctic and Antarctic, with the major focus on climate change.
The BBC's David Willis travelled to the remote Alaskan island of Shishmaref, a community that is being destroyed by climate change.
www.climateark.org: Island people swallowed by the sea
www.arctic.noaa.gov: Village of Shishmaref facing evacuation

Build inland, UN climate report warns
New York, March 2, 2007 - An international panel of scientists has proposed that all countries cease building on coastal land that is less than a metre above high tide so as to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Build inland, UN climate report warns

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
London, February 20, 2007 - A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
news.independent.co.uk 160207: Scientists sound alarm over melting Antarctic ice sheets

Bangladesh: At the mercy of climate change
London, February 19, 2007 - It is more exposed than any other country to global warming. And a series of unusual events - from dying trees to freak weather - suggest its impact is already being felt. Justin Huggler reports from the Sundarbans nature reserve.
news.independent.co.uk: Bangladesh: At the mercy of climate change

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