rising sea levels in Bangkok and the Tuvalu archipelago

The UN Security Council is meeting on Tuesday February 14 to discuss rising sea levels, which threaten to engulf several cities and capitals around the world within just a few decades. The correspondents’ club is interested in the case of Bangkok in Thailand and island nations in the Pacific Ocean.

The countries of the Pacific, these small island nations, have for some become even smaller in recent years, as part of their territory has begun to be swallowed up. Among these countries which could disappear, there is the small archipelago of Tuvalu. In this country of only 11,000 inhabitants, the sea level has been rising by 5mm per year since 1993. It doesn’t seem like much except that the highest point in this very small country is only 4.5m above sea level. As a result, the climate has already changed, precipitation, storms and cyclones are both more frequent and more violent, and nearly 20% of the population has already left the country to settle in New Zealand.

the city of Bangkok threatened with extinction?

In Thailand, the capital Bangkok is threatened with disappearing under water by 2050, according to recent studies. A 2019 report clearly demonstrates that Bangkok, located just 1.5m above water level, will experience severe flooding from 2030 before gradually being completely submerged in 2050 if nothing is done to stop it. the phenomenon. Bangkok is now ranked ninth among the most endangered cities in the world. Southeast Asia is a particularly at-risk area since the majority of Vietnam and Malaysia are also threatened with extinction.