The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has just published a communication,which shows that the average global temperature in the first ten months of this year was almost 1 ° C above the pre-industrial level (1850-1900). A critical temperature of 1.5 deg. C can take place as early as 2030.
These 1.5 degrees C are the threshold of our climate security, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote in the report that after it has been exceeded, the changes will be irreversible.
The consequence of global warming is an increase in the level of seas and oceans
The global sea level is now higher by 13-20 cm than it was in 1900. In the 20th century, water increased at a rate of about 1.5 mm per year. In the last decade of the previous century, the melting of glaciers accelerated and the water level started to grow by 3.2 mm, and in the 21st century by 3.4 mm.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution’s Ocean Initiative estimated that a one-degree increase in temperature means a sea level rise of 2.3 m.
By the end of the century, the sea level will increase by 25 cm. 760 million people are looking anxiously towards the shore, who live in areas threatened with flooding.
What the sea will take us. At first, Szczecin will be at the seaside, and then Bydgoszcz
Poland has 440 km of coastline, if we do not decide to build dikes, we have to reckon with the flooding of parts of Gdańsk, Szczecin, with the total disappearance of Świnoujście under the sea. As soon as the sea level increases by 25 cm, the Baltic Sea will take nearly 1440 square kilometers of land (an area three times larger than Warsaw).
If the water level rises by 7 m, it is enough to melt the ice in Greenland, we will lose over 4.3 thousand. km sq., a large part of Szczecin and all coastal towns from Gdańsk to Krynica Morska. And if we can melt all the glaciers on Earth, then the seaport can be built in Bydgoszcz and around Zielona Góra!
However, the biggest losses would be the flooding of the Tri-City and Szczecin (as well as smaller coastal cities, with Świnoujście at the forefront). In these agglomerations, even a small increase in sea level will cause flooding of industrial and port areas.
Only Gdynia, thanks to its location on the hills, has a chance to remain above the surface.
In Gdańsk, even a quarter-meter increase threatens the refinery, which may mean environmental disaster. The Energa Gdańsk stadium will cease to exist with the increase of the water level by 2 m!
It will be even worse in Szczecin, which will finally be at the seaside, but for the price of dividing the city into two parts and flooding the Prawobrzeże district. How exactly it will look like we show on the maps.
It all doesn’t seem real but according to experts, this will happen in the next 100 years.
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