In Egypt, A Rising Sea — And Growing Worries About Climate Change’s Effects

egypt-alexandria
Mediterranean coast, Alexandria, Egypt. Photo source: ©© Emie Reyes

Excerpts;

On Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, August should be prime tourist season. But the seaside restaurants in Alexandria are almost empty.

Rising sea levels are affecting the Nile River delta, the triangle where the Nile spreads out and drains into the sea. It’s where Egypt grows most of its crops. According to the World Bank, Egypt — with its already high poverty rates and rapidly growing population — is one of the countries that will be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change…

Read Full Article; NPR (08-13-2017)

Nile Delta Disappearing Beneath the Sea (01-29-2014)
In a report released in September 2013, the IPCC predicts a sea level rise of 28 to 98 centimetres by 2100. Even by the most conservative estimate, this would destroy 12.5 percent of Egypt’s cultivated areas and displace about eight million people, or nearly 10 percent of the population. But it is not just rising sea levels that threaten Egypt’s northern coast, the delta itself is sinking…

Can Egypt Escape Its Climate Future? Guardian UK (11-19-2011)
“The Mediterranean is remorselessly battering the Egyptian coastline. Salt is leaching into the rich soils and invading the drinking water wells, 1,000-year-old homes are being eroded from below. Sea levels are inexorably rising and storms are becoming more intense…”

Calls for Advances in Resotration Sedimentology to Protect World’s River Deltas, Science Daily (11-07-2012)
As land is disappearing from river deltas at alarming rates, rapid advances in the new and developing field of restoration sedimentology will be needed to protect the world’s river deltas from an array of threats…

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