Rising Sea Levels A Reality For Grenada's Locals

Rising sea levels as a result of climate change have already moved beyond the realm of theoretical into the world of reality for those living along the shorelines of the southern Caribbean island of Grenada, according to the AP.

“The sea will take this whole place down,” local fisherman Desmond Augustin told the news outlet. “There’s not a lot we can do except move higher up.”

Dozens of families are reportedly thinking about relocating as sand extraction and angry storm surges exacerbated, according to the Nature Conservancy, by climate change, have pushed saltwater past breakwaters of truck tires and bundles of driftwood.

Should climate change predictions continue as forecasted, however, the number of people affected could grow from a few families to as much as 70 percent of Grenada’s population.

“It’s a massive threat to the economies of these islands,” Owen Day, a marine biologist with the Caribsave Partnership, told the AP. “I would say the region’s coastal areas will be very severely impacted in the next 50 to 100 years.”

Among those ecosystems that face the largest threat due to rising levels of saltwater are coastal wetlands: in all, a World Bank study estimates that 60 percent of those found in the Caribbean and the developing world could be destroyed in coming years with annual economic losses of $630 million.

Another significant economic outcome for the Caribbean as a result of rising sea levels is a decrease in tourism as such losses are projected to adversely affect the islands’ aesthetics, according to a study released by Caribsave. Furthermore, the study estimates that as many as 21 of the 64 regional airports could be lost for the same reasons.

And while places like Grenada are currently facing a loss of land measured in a matter of a few feet, scientists estimate that should nearly all the ice on Earth melt as it did 40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, sea levels could rise as much as 70 meters higher than today's levels.