A bit more information on the CARIBSAVE projection of the damage sea level rise could cause in the Caribbean. The video was made in support of a report which was released this week at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun Mexico. Writing for the Independent newspaper in the UK, Michael McCarthy reports:
Rising sea levels caused by climate change are set to cause damage of billions of dollars to the islands states of the Caribbean by the middle of the century, including wiping out more than 300 premium tourist resorts, a remarkable new report suggested yesterday.
Airports, power plants, roads and agricultural land in low-lying areas, as well as prime tourist locations on islands from Bermuda to Barbados, and from St Kitts and Nevis to St Vincent and the Grenadines, will be all be lost or severely damaged, with dire implications for national economies and for the welfare of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, according to the report.
Released yesterday at the UN climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, the report paints an astonishing picture of West Indies-wide devastation caused in the decades to come by rising seas. Sea levels mount in association with global warming because warming water expands in volume, and melting ice from land-based ice sheets and glaciers adds to the rise.
The report suggests that, just for the 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean nations which make up the Caricom (Caribbean Community) regional grouping, the cost of the damage and necessary rebuilding caused by sea-level rise could by 2080 have reached a staggering $187bn (£120bn).
It suggests that, with a sea-level rise of one metre, which is now regarded as highly likely by the end of the century, the Caribbean would see “at least 149 multi-million dollar tourism resorts damaged or lost” and would also see loss or damage of 21 of the Caricom airports, and the inundation of land surrounding 35 of the region’s 44 ports.
With a two-metre sea-level rise, by no means impossible, there would be “at least 233 multi-million dollar tourism resorts lost” plus damage or loss of nine power plants, 31 airports, and the loss of 710km of roads. However, when a more sophisticated analysis was done on the impacts of erosion caused by rising seas, it was found that the damage leapt upwards, as one metre of sea level rise on low-lying coasts gives between 50 and 100 metres of erosion. A one-metre rise with erosion factored in would result in “at least 307 multi-million dollar tourism resorts damaged or lost,” the report says.
You can read the complete article at the Independent website.
The document above is a summary of the study. There is lots more information, including other documents available for download, at the CARIBSAVE Climate Change Project webpage.
