Climate change, rising seas may lead to extinction of small island nations

[Jilly_in_VA]

Island nations across the world are warning that they face catastrophic consequences of rising sea levels and possible extinction, after a landmark U.N. report warned of the effects of a warming world.

An alliance of 39 coastal and low-lying nations said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was a "major alert for the world" and called on more powerful countries to do all they can to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius to "save lives and livelihoods."

"We have to turn this around," Diann Black-Layne, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, said in a statement Monday after the IPCC report was released.

"The IPCC confirms the experience of small island states: that cyclones are getting more intense, and that sea levels are rising, but it also confirms we can still curb the worst of it."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-change-rising-seas-may-lead-extinction-small-island-nations-n1276394

[marybourg]

1. . . . and climate disaster refugees.

[Hekate]

2. So weird that the news media "rediscovers" this bald fact every time a new science report emerges

I wish it would stay on their radar in-between those times, because atolls are drowning, and people live on them.

[roamer65]

3. Not "may"...it WILL lead to the end of many of them.

Especially in the Pacific Ocean.

[paleotn]

4. NBC need to get a grip on reality and change that title....

It's not "may". It's "will". The only question is when.

We won't change. Not by any appreciable amount. 20% of the richest country on earth refuse to accept the problem is real. Another 25% of Americans at least acknowledge the problem, but don't think it's a significant threat. The developing world correctly blames the industrialized world for causing the problem, but also believe it's not fair that they can no longer follow the same fossil fuel path to economic development. Even among wealthy nations, there's no real stomach for the painful choices necessary to have any significant impact on climate change. Many talk a wonderful game, but grow their CO2 emissions all the same, each and every year. Fossil fuels are like a heroine addiction. Even when faced with the destruction the addiction is causing, we still can't stop it. So, the question isn't "may lead to extinction of small island nations" and much of the planet's flora and fauna. The only real question is when.