Monday, May 16, 2016

Climate change: Flooding caused by global warming to put one billion people at risk by 2060, charity warns

Climate change: Flooding caused by global warming to put one billion people at risk by 2060, charity warns 
  More than a billion people will be at risk from flooding caused by climate change in just a few decades' time, a leading charity has warned.   Christian Aid says that  huge numbers of people in coastal cities would exposed to rising seas, flooding, extreme weather and storm surges by 2060.   The urban poor – a demographic expected to grow in coming years - would be hardest hit, the charity said, in a “humanitarian crisis waiting to happen”. However, the report says a widespread catastrophe was not inevitable and protective measures implemented now could negate the worst effects.   If trends continue, many of the places likely to be hardest hit will be in Asia, but the US will also badly suffer the effects, according to the paper.     South Asia will be the hardest hit, with the Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai, and the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka, predicted to have the largest populations – all of at least 11 million people - exposed to coastal flooding by the 2070s. More