BANGKOK, Thailand - Coastal cities around the world are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related to climate change.
Of the 33 cities predicted to have at least eight million people by 2015, at least 21 are coastal and highly vulnerable, says the Worldwatch Institute.
They include (according to studies by the United Nations and others):
- Dhaka in Bangladesh
- Buenos Aires
- Rio de Janeiro
- Shanghai and Tianjin in China
- Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt
- Mumbai and Kolkata in India
- Jakarta in Indonesia
- Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan
- Lagos in Nigeria
- Karachi in Pakistan
- Bangkok in Thailand
- New York and Los Angeles in the United States.
More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying coastal areas at risk from climate change, say U.S. and European experts. Most imperiled, in descending order, are China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, the U.S., Thailand and the Philippines.
