The latest studies on climate change are bleak: At the current rates of greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures are on pace to warm up to 4.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
Effectively, that means that within the next 100 years we will see water levels rise as much as two meters, flooding many coastal cities and making some island nations uninhabitable. In addition to the damage wrought by flooding, rising seawater levels will contaminate precious aquifers, leaving much of the world’s population without access to fresh water.
Food security will also be affected: A 2014 report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that climate change will reduce the production of staple food crops such as rice, wheat and corn by 50 percent in some parts of the world by 2050. Add to that more frequent and intense storms, hurricanes affecting thousands of communities around the world, higher air temperatures, and more frequent and intense hotspots.
About the author
Malia Politzer
Malia Politzer is an award-winning long-form journalist who specializes in international development, human rights issues and investigative reporting. She recently completed a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs in India and Spain. For three years, she worked as a feature-writer at Mint, India’s second-largest financial newspaper, where she wrote about international development, strategic philanthropy and impact investing. She holds an M.S. journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Stabile Fellow for Investigative Journalism, and a B.A. from Hampshire College.
