It is predicted that many places around the globe will be completely under water in the centuries and millennia to come. Climate change means that as temperatures are increasing, ice is melting and the sea levels are rising.
In the shorter term, this means that places around the world, including Cornwall, are increasingly at risk of flooding. In the longer term, it means that some bits of land are doomed to disappear.
You can read more about the parts of Cornwall that could be under water due to climate change here.
Geologist, Edmond Mathez, of the American Museum of Natural History, has suggested that if all the ice covering Antarctica and Greenland, and mountain glaciers around the world, were to melt, the sea level would rise 70 metres and cover all coastal cities.
An interactive flood map by FireTree shows that if sea levels were to rise by 60 metres, that two parts of Cornwall could become islands – the area between Carbis Bay and Sennen and St Levan would become an island and the area between Mullion and St Keverne.
While many people suggest climate change won’t affect our generation, certainly governments and organisations around the UK have set 2020 or 2030 as the deadline to make major changes to help combat climate change.
According to NASA: “Global sea level rise is accelerating incrementally over time rather than increasing at a steady rate, as previously thought.
“If the rate of ocean rise continues to change at this pace, sea level will rise 26 inches (65 centimetres) by 2100 – enough to cause significant problem for coastal cities.”
While the Royal Society says: “If CO and other greenhouse gases continue to increase on their current trajectories, it is projected that sea level may rise by a further 0.5 to 1 m (1.5 to 3 feet) by 2100.
“But rising sea levels will not stop in 2100; sea levels will be much higher in the following centuries as the sea continues to take up heat and glaciers continue to retreat.”
The Environment Agency, however, said that it cannot speculate beyond current projections, saying: “Using the high-end forecasts for scenarios like nuclear power stations, the maximum level the sea could rise would be 2.2m by the end of 2115.
“Even with this high-end scenario, we do not foresee the geography changing within Cornwall and we cannot speculate beyond our current projections.”
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This article was first published in 2019