Drowned Worlds - Part 1

By Péter MARTON

Annual sea level rise of one centimetre. Storms (and, increasingly, even milder winds) pushing swells of water over the island's territory. Channels created through swampland (for gas and oil companies) all around inviting salty sea water in. Soil erosion resulting, after trees die in the salinised ground and their roots no longer hold stuff together.

The nearby metropolis no longer considering it a worthy investment to keep protecting the remaining little piece of land, proposing relocation instead.

A few people holding out no matter what.

This is what it looks like, for Isle de Jean Charles in the New Orleans area (Louisiana), and what it could look like in the future elsewhere.

As Spiegel's report concludes:

If it is this difficult to move a few dozen people out of danger from rising sea levels and the other problems, then how will it be possible to do the same for much larger populations, like those living in areas of Florida at risk of flooding?
But perhaps that question is too broad. Perhaps this is really only about the future of a single island.

Perhaps. Perhaps very very not – heard of the contingency called the "Pulse"? Collapse of cold water currents around Antarctica, the melting of ice accelerated...

I used an SF reference in the title already (to J.G. Ballard's 1962 classic, titled The Drowned World, a story set in a world suffering from climate change and sea level rise) – now here's another one. Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 is similarly built on a post-pulse scenario (past two pulses in fact, possibly awaiting a third).

In the meantime, besides the question of "What if people are not inclined to move?", which is no doubt intriguing itself, the question of "What if other people will be disinclined to accept them en masse when the shit hits the fan?" is probably just as important.