This website is showing Pacific islanders how their homes will be destroyed by global warming

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “some 40 per cent of the world’s population lives within 62 miles of the ocean, putting millions of lives and billions of dollars’ worth of property and infrastructure at risk”.

A new website called Coastal Risk seeks to show people living on the Pacific island of Vanuatu what rising sea levels and predicted levels of flooding can do to their homes and communities.

It helps you choose different predictions - from low risk to high risk - and maps out what your area will look like if that particular scenario comes to pass.

Picture: Coastal Risk/screengrab

The website was created by an Australian research organisation in conjunction with mapping company NGIS, and allows locals to look at different scenarios for sea level rise – the highest of which is 29 inches, predicted by 2100.

Jesse Benjamin, Vanuatu's Director-General of Climate Change, said:

[The website will] build awareness regarding the challenges that Vanuatu faces with climate change, and will ultimately lead to more effective decision making.

Nathan Eaton, of NGIS, claimed that one village chief has already decided to move his village up the hill so as to prevent it from being heavily flooded in the near future.

HT BBC

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