River Deltas at Risk from Climate Change and Other Factors

Perilously situated between rising sea levels and pressures from upstream lie coastal river deltas and their roughly half a billion inhabitants. These regions have played an important role in societal development since the last ice age, offering flat, fertile lands with abundant freshwater which are ideal for agriculture. In recent times, coastal river deltas have become hubs of the global shipping trade, giving rise to fast-growing megacities such as Dhaka, Cairo and Shanghai.

But these areas are now facing growing risks under all of theSea level rise and its associated impacts, such as salinization, are a key threat to deltas. But it's not just the rising sea that creates such risks—deltas themselves are sinking. Our results show that land subsides as much as three times faster thanAll land rises and falls as the Earth's crust slowly changes shap

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Older Women Face Increased Risk in Climate Change-Driven DisastersWhen forest fires roared through Carpinteria, Calif., in 2017, 88-year-old Nadine Demalleville had just five minutes to evacuate the mobile home where she lived alone with her beloved cats. The former nurse relied on a wheelchair and had no way to get herself to the emergency shelter 20 miles away. Were it not for a neighbor who stepped in to help, Demalleville would likely have perished in the fire. Instead, she arrived safely at the shelter with a lunchbox full of medications but little else. As climate change fuels ever-deadlier disasters, it may seem that no one is immune to the wildfires, storms and heat waves that plague our baking planet. While this may be true, some are more threatened than others, and older women like Demalleville are among those most at risk
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