All of this infrastructure could be out of commission in a century. 

Up to 85% of the population and 90% of the infrastructure of coastal zones throughout the UAE is at risk from climate change, a new study by researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute finds in: “Climate Change - Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation in UAE.”

Despite uncertainty about to what extent, some degree of global warming is already happening and will only continue, resulting in an unavoidable increase in sea levels. How much that will be is uncertain. The uncertainty comes from not being able to predict whether and how fast and how effectively political actions will be taken to reduce greenhouse gases. There is no uncertainty about the science of climate change itself.

The very best case scenario had originally seen a one or two foot rise, which it is almost impossible to achieve now. Now, higher rises and worse case scenarios are more likely. We can now only control how much worse those scenarios are.

The speed of implementing renewable energy to replace fossil energy depends on legislation at the global level and national level, especially in China, India and the US where the climate bill is due to be voted on in the US Senate. But time is running out, with most scientists seeing a tipping point by 2017.

Even a rise of ten feet (three metres) would see Abu Dhabi lose more than 800 sq km under water, and Dubai would lose important infrastructure as well, the report said.

But once sea levels rise thirty feet (nine metres), all of the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi and the city of Dubai would be entirely submerged. That could happen as soon as 2100, (and almost certainly by 2200 or 2300), making the city’s elaborate infrastructure probably the shortest-lived in human history.

Unlike Venice, which was built in the middle ages, modern cities have key electrical infrastructure at ground level and below, making it almost impossible to inhabit a modern city with skyscrapers submerged up to the first or second floor.

Source:

UAE Khaleej Times

Cleantechnica

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