100 year view on climate change in CentAm

A new study providing the 100 year view on climate change in Central America is rather grim. Temperatures will rise by over 2 degree Celsius in most of the region. This will reshape agriculture, reduce biodiversity and could cause diseases to spread, such as dengue reaching San Jose, Costa Rica.

Most importantly, there will be less water in key agricultural areas. Countries, if they keep the same borders, will likely fight over fresh water supplies, river flows and watersheds. Countries need to think through and prepare water management plans if they hope to provide for their entire populations in the coming decades. When the water does arrive, it will often be in the form of devastating floods and hurricanes, requiring better resilience and responses by regional authorities.

Shrinking islands

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.