Sea Level Rise

In 2006, the first inhabited island was lost to rising sea levels. The island of Lohachara, home to some 10,000 people, sank beneath the surface of the Bay of Bengal. This Indian island was situated in an area called the Sundarbans, which has some 70,000 people living on a dozen islands who are all facing the same fate as those of Lohachara. Of the 102 islands in the Indian Sundarbans, only 54 are still habitable. Lohachara's inhabitants became some of the world's first global warming refugees, many of whom are still homeless or settled on nearby islands only to be facing inundation again. Unlike the area's human inhabitants, its unique wildlife, including 400 endangered Bengal tigers, are unlikely to survive the rising tides.

Rising sea levels are caused by both the warming oceans and melting ice. As water heats above 4°C (39.2°F) it expands through a process known as "thermal expansion". Global warming is causing the oceans to heat up and expand and therefore rise. The melting of glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets - the melting of which is exacerbated by warming ocean - are also contributing to the rising seas.

It has been suggested that sea level could rise between 18 and 59cm (7 and 23 inches) by the end of this century. These estimates are somewhat conservative and do not include the full effects of a complete melting of the Greenland or West Antarctic ice sheets, which would contribute an additional 12m (39 feet) combined to sea level rise.

Scientists have suggested that by 2080 millions of people are likely to be flooded every year and hundreds of millions more may be displaced by rising seas. Whole island nations, such as the Maldives, could disappear off the map altogether and large swaths of low lying areas are likely to be inundated. Sea level rise will flood developed and developing countries alike. Even some of the world's most important and heavily populated cities, such as New York, London and Bangkok, are at risk of disappearing under the rising waters.