Sinking – Sea Level Rise around Pacific Islands by Silvia Romanelli

In November 2021, the foreign minister of Tuvalu addressed the climate summit COP26 while standing knee-deep in the ocean to raise awareness of the imminent threat sea level rise represents for Pacific islands.

Indeed, changing sea levels can have devastating consequences on the Pacific islands’ population: coastal flooding, shorelines erosion, infrastructures deterioration… and even the possibility of a portion of their land being under water by the end of the century.

The more vulnerable to sea rising are those living in low-lying coastal lands, which is the majority of the population in many Pacific countries. In Nauru, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, at least 85% of the population lives in low-lying coastal zones, up to 10 meters above sea level.

This visualization shows the level the sea could reach by 2090 around 13 Pacific Island Nations, based on research by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Four possible scenarios are drawn by the IPCC, depending on how much action will be taken against climate change in the coming years. This visualization depicts the worst scenario, in which the sea level could rise at least 60 cm around each country. Each line in the visual represents one cm above 60. The more lines there are, the more the sea level could rise around those islands, threatening their global population and particularly those living in low-lying coastal zones.

More info on the creative process for this piece at the following link: https://medium.com/make-your-data-speak/beyond-usual-charts-the-making-of-my-data-story-sinking-6870a1eadee3