Climate Talks: What’s at Stake for the World’s Coasts

Infographic outlines how sea level rise triggered by climate change will permanently alter coastlines and how much the resulting damage will cost.

Share This Article

People travel on a boat as they move to safer places through a flooded road in Chennai, India on December 2, 2015. India is among several countries that will have the highest number of people affected by flooding as global warming accelerates. REUTERS/Stringer

Share This Article

Editor’s Note: This is the first infographic in the ICN “What’s at Stake” series highlighting the key impacts associated with climate change.

Climate change is already redrawing the world’s coastlines—and it will continue to do so as long as the earth continues to warm. According to a recent analysis by Climate Central, continuing to burn fossil fuels at the current rate would result in warming of 4 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels. That would cause nearly 30 feet of sea level rise, submerging the land that’s home to at least 470 million people if no adaptation measures are taken. Here’s a rundown of how climate change affects the coasts and the associated social and economic costs.

Click to enlarge infographic.

Click the graphic to enlarge.

About This Story

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.

That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.

Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?

Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.

Thank you,

Share This Article