50 years from now rising sea levels will likely start to eat away at a number of coastlines. This will be a problem throughout the hemisphere, but will be a particularly big hit to the islands in the Caribbean. Most are rather small and don't have much space to lose.
Do they accept the lost land? Do they build walls to try to keep out the rising ocean? Do the build platforms over the sea? Do they build floating portions to the island? Do they build skyscrapers upwards, regaining lost ground vertically that they lose horizontally? Do they build underneath the water?
Every country will likely approach the problem differently. For those islands that choose to use structures to maintain their lost land, I would be interested to know some of the international law questions that could be raised by them building on top of or under the waves. This could go to how we define maritime boundaries.
1 comment:
Unless the countries are building huge swaths of platforms miles from the current coastlines I'm not sure there would be significant changes to the maritime boundaries. Additionally, the international community could decide that maritime boundaries are based upon the land present on such and such a date. If new land appears, the borders are reassessed, but if land goes away it is not reassessed.
Another area to look at for precedence in regards constructing on the sea and its impact on national boundaries might be the old military installations in the North Sea where there are old military installations.
I think building up, like in Panama City, is likely to happen. I don't see countries completely abandoning areas where they've already poured money into infrastructure.
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