New Study: 300 Million Face Severe Risk of Climate-Fueled Coastal Flooding by 2050

This was an excellent and incredibly alarming program which again absolutely underscores the urgency of the climate emergency and how we all must unite nationally and globally in vitally needed comprehensive change NOW. — Molly

As a shocking new report finds that many coastal cities will be flooded by rising sea levels by 2050, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera announced Wednesday that the U.N. Climate Summit in Santiago has been canceled. Anti-inequality protests have entered their third week in the country with protesters calling for the Piñera government to resign. The U.N. said it is now looking for an alternative venue for the annual climate meetings. Meanwhile, a dire new report has warned 300 million people are at risk from rising sea levels, with the most vulnerable populations concentrated in the Global South. According to the study published in Nature Communications, global sea levels are expected to rise between two and seven feet or possibly more, with some coastal cities being wiped off the map. We speak with Harjeet Singh, the global lead on climate change for Action Aid who is based in New Delhi, India; and Benjamin Strauss, co-author of the study in Nature Communications and CEO and chief scientist at Climate Central.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, Democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And I’m Nermeen Shaikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. As wildfires continue to rage in California and a shocking new report finds that many coastal cities will be permanently flooded by rising sea levels, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera has canceled the upcoming U.N. Climate Summit. The two-week summit had been scheduled for December in the Chilean capital of Santiago, which has seen weeks of mass protests against the Chilean government’s neoliberal policies. The U.N. is now looking for an alternative venue. The annual climate meetings offer a critical space for developing countries to request greater help from rich nations as they confront the worst effects of the climate crisis.

Piñera’s announcement comes as a dire new report warns 300 million people are at risk of being displaced due to rising sea levels, three times more than previous estimates. According to the study published in Nature Communications, the vast majority of the most vulnerable populations are concentrated in Asia with China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand facing the gravest threat.

AMY GOODMAN: The study finds global sea levels are expected to rise between two to seven feet and possibly more, with some coastal cities being wiped off the map. To talk more about the implications of the latest report, we are joined by two guests. Here in New York, Benjamin Strauss is with us, CEO and chief scientist at Climate Central and co-author of the new study on rising sea levels. And Harjeet Singh is the global lead on climate change at ActionAid, working with climate migrants in a number of countries, joining us from New Delhi, India. We begin with Benjamin Strauss. Explain the report, the scope of the report and what you found.

BENJAMIN STRAUSS: Thanks so much for having me, Amy and Nermeen, to discuss such an important issue. We found that the global exposure to sea level rise and coastal flooding in the coming several decades is more than three times what we thought based on previous data. Essentially, almost all of climate science has been focused on the question of what the sea level will be in the future, which makes sense. That’s what’s changing; sea level is rising. But you really need to know two things to understand the human vulnerability to sea level rise, and one is the height of the sea but the other is the height of the land.

We all assumed that we knew that, that it was fixed and simple. But in my research with my colleague, Scott Kulp, we took a closer look at the data being used to estimate land elevations globally, and while there is very accurate data in the United States and Australia and parts of Western Europe, the data set used for global analysis and most of Asia and the rest of the world overestimated coastal elevations by more than six feet or two meters.

To continue this transcript, or to watch the full video interview, please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2019/10/31/chile_cancels_un_climate_summit_after?fbclid=IwAR0czqFlHMp1X3q6Kle26xfKN20SZvzBesVRB7LRa-JaRDOjvfE_srvRJCg