It’s no longer just a few desert islets that are in the news as places flooded for the first time due to climate change. Now They are starting to become small cities with thousands of inhabitants, in some cases preparing their evacuation. because they are sinking and will not exist in about thirty years. It is, unfortunately, a new phase in a process that is irreversible and will be increasingly populated, bigger and bigger, with more dramatic consequences. That was climate change.
Tangier is a city located on the island of the same name in the Chesapeake Bay (Virginia, USA).is located at a very low level above sea level. Every millimeter that the water rises may seem insignificant to most people, but for residential areas like this it represents a few inches of land lost. It had a population of about 1,100 in 1900, but the rise of the sea reduced the population to 436 as the flooding of its land accelerated over the course of several decades. It is expected to lose all of its habitable land within 15-30 years.
The human and social drama in Tangier is therefore only a foretaste of how much larger coastal cities will suffer in the next generation. “Soon these Americans, residents of Virginia’s last fishing community, will be refugees from climate change and will have to move,” says David Shulte of the College of William and Mary, who has studied the island’s gradual sinking. Tangier has lost 67% of its land mass since 1850 due to global warming.
Shulte and his colleagues calculated how much it would cost to deal with the situation, using two different possibilities: protecting the city from flooding or relocating all its inhabitants.
As a result, the cost of sea containment, dredging and other infrastructure to save the island will be between $250 and $350 million. The option to relocate 436 residents will be cheaper: between $100 and $200 million.
Also in the UK
Over the Ocean, in Great Britain, 700 inhabitants Fairbourne, a small seaside town in North WalesThey discovered that this town would be dismantled overnight, after authorities concluded that it would no longer be safe to live there until 2054. These 700 natives will be Britain’s first climate refugees.
“They condemned the people. Now they have to move people. There are 450 houses» says Stuart Eves, Chairman of Fairbourne City Council. “If they want us to leave by 2054, they must have a place to accommodate us,” he told the Associated Press.
Nobody really wants to leave. There are many retirees, but also young families with children who enjoy a natural and open life. But in reality, everything is changing due to the huge CO2 emissions caused by humanity for almost two centuries.
Scientists say the water level has risen 10 centimeters in the last century and will rise between 70 centimeters and one meter by 2100, depending on future greenhouse gas emissions. Fairbourne, like Tangier, is on a brackish saltwater marsh, almost at sea level.
Authorities invested millions of pounds to strengthen a seawall and barriers of around three kilometers against storms. But the situation is the same, there is no cure: “We have to be realistic, we can’t protect the whole coast,” says Richard Dawson, a professor of engineering at Newcastle University.
In fact, experts say the number of coastal properties in the UK at risk of flooding will rise to half a million in three decades, and 1.5 million by 2080.
Tuvalu’s hopeless case
But neither Fairbourne nor Tainger said that the consequences of rising sea levels, Tuvalu is a small country-island located in the Pacific and many other islands such as Kiribati, Samoa or Fiji. Unlike both the British and North American peoples, the mainland of the Tuvaluan is not nearby. They are literally in the middle of nowhere.
This tiny island state came to the fore at the Glasgow summit last year. Secretary of State Simon Kofe appeared via videoconference, literally with water up to his knees.. Dressed in a suit, tie, with flags behind and beside his lectern, the politician decided to speak out in order to make the drama of his people visible.
“We are sinking, but the same thing happens to everyone,” said Kofe.
Tuvalu is very small (26 square kilometers, almost like the island of La Graciosa in Lanzarote), but it has a sizable population: 12,000 people. It has its own airport, bank, school, library and some hostels.
The highest point is only four meters above sea level. “These are extremely low-lying landmasses, and most of the habitable land is already underwater during normal tides. Every millimeter of sea level rise increases flood size and depth Marines,” climate change expert Arthur Webb, who worked on a Tuvalu coastal adaptation project, told the BBC.
Another ecological challenge has been added to the reduction in the habitable surface. salinization of groundwater. This means that the population is practically dependent on rainwater.however, the few existing products, which are basically breadfruit, are highly intolerant to salt and are seriously threatened.
Tuvalu belongs to the 39-member Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), which includes Caribbean islands like Antigua and Barbuda or the Indian Ocean like Maldives. The problems are all the same.
As the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda said before COP26, “small island states contribute less than 1% to global CO2 missions; Our countries are the least harmful to the environment in the world. But instead, we pay the highest price.
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