Future design and development planning is under pressure to start thinking about rising sea levels and other weather related risks. When and how will this be critical. Recent reports, highlighted in this article from Forbes, agree that it can't happen soon enough, and some of the critical areas may surprise you.
Most people think of the arctic as remote – a wasteland inhabited by polar bears (true) and penguins (untrue) – with little relevance to their daily lives.
Most people are wrong.
While the arctic may be distant for us geographically, what happens there has an enormous effect on us, no matter where we live.
NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, published its 2018 Arctic Report Card last December.
Like most of you, I missed reading it back then and only learned about it through a wonderful YouTube channel called Just Have A Think (hosted by a British non-scientist who does a great job of explaining climate-related topics).
The report contains a lot of things no one cares about; for example, arctic sea ice is becoming thinner and newer and covers less area then any recorded period, wild reindeer and caribou herds have declined by over 50% despite a greening of the land, and the arctic region has warmed at twice the rate of lower latitudes.
