MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. The island nations of Kiribati and the Maldives will eventually be wiped off the global map amid rising sea levels due to climate change, climate expert Alexey Kokorin from the Nature and People foundation told TASS.
The Earth’s climate is moving ever closer to a so-called "point of no return," after which uncontrolled global warming can no longer be stopped, the Guardian reported earlier citing scientists from the US-based Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates (TERA) and the Potsdam Institute.
"When you hear people talk about a point of no return, that’s up for interpretation. For Kiribati, the point of no return has already passed. The country will inevitably be consumed by water. Its location, the place where it is situated, the way the World Ocean level is rising - it's inevitable. Even a rise of one and a half meters, plus more frequent storms and storm surges, would mean its disappearance. The Maldives will probably face the same fate," the expert said.
According to him, the international community is currently focusing its efforts on stabilizing global warming and, consequently, the frequency and intensity of the dangerous phenomena it triggers. The main threat is not the rise in average temperatures but the speed with which they increase. Therefore, it’s of the utmost importance to reign in climate change before it affects more and more countries.
"In essence, we are talking about roughly 2.5 degrees Celsius compared with the 19th century. There is no goal of returning to the climate of the 19th or even the 20th century. Therefore, speaking about a point of no return for the Earth as a whole is probably somewhat incorrect, since no one intends to go back. It is too complicated, it is practically impossible," the climatologist concluded.