Friday, 3 November 2017

Move Or Buy A Boat

When UN climate negotiators meet for summit talks this month the over-riding message is going to be if you thought a rise in global temperature of 2C was going to be bad, how about that 3C we are currently barrelling towards. 
'We find ourselves in a situation where we are not doing nearly enough to save hundreds of millions of people from a miserable future' said the UN Environment Chief, Erik Solheim, ahead of the Bonn conference.
Many will be wondering as 3C seems to be were we are heading, where exactly will the miserable hundreds of millions come from and the UN has provided a handy guide to the cities we will be waving goodbye to by 2100.
The people of Japan have more than their fair share of disasters and it is Osaka and its 5.2 million population who will be watching their city disappear beneath the sea in a 3C world.
The Osakians may be looking for a new place to live but they shouldn't look towards Shangahai in China because they have their own problems with 18 million people displaced by rising sea levels.
The Mekong Delta in Vietnam already have homes on stilts due to flooding but even that won't be enough for the 17.5 million people who live there and Bangladesh will have to find a new Capital City as Dhaka is swallowed up by the Ganges, shifting the 14.5 million who live there to pastures new. 
Egypt as a new start is out because flooding along the Nile will make 8 million people homeless, displaced by flooding in Alexandria and the Nile Delta.  
On the other side of the World, the Christ the Redeemer statue may be the only thing left visible in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro region as 1.8 million people have to make way for the Atlantic Ocean that has rolled over their homes and in Miami, Florida strengthening hurricanes will no longer be a problem for it's 7 million inhabitants, as there will no longer be a Miami, Florida unless you plan to live in a submarine. 
In Venice, Italy, they have a double problem because not only are water levels in the Adriatic Sea rising, but Venice is also sinking and although the Netherlands has been battling against the North Sea for hundreds of years, the rising sea will overwhelm even the hardiest of dikes with Rotterdam and its 1 million inhabitants the first to have the problem of a hill to run to in an entirely flat country.
The highest place above sea-level in the World and therefore where the rising oceans will reach last, is the region of Puno in Peru so buying a bed and breakfast in Puno and cramming as many cheeseburgers as you fit into your freezer in Puno may be an astute financial move as there could well have 7 million Floridians turning up there soon.

1 comment:

Falling on a bruise said...

Make your feet wetter also.