BERLIN, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- More than three million Germans are at risk of having to be re-settled from coastal areas if sea levels continue to rise due to climate change, the magazine Spiegel reported on Monday.
Citing an unpublished study it obtained by the scientific research division of the German federal parliament, Spiegel reported that roughly 3.2 million citizens living in areas at an elevation no more than five meters above sea level on the North Sea coast, and three meters above sea level on the Baltic Sea coast, face a risk of flooding. The scenario is premised on a continued rise in average global temperatures and further losses of the already-rapidly thinning Arctic ice-shield as a result.
Germany's maritime states have invested millions of euros in building new dykes and fortifying old structures during the past years in a bid to prevent low-lying coastal areas from becoming uninhabitable. However, the measures are not yet complete and come with a steep price tag. The state of Schleswig-Holstein estimates that raising just one kilometer of dyke to a higher, and therefore more secure, elevation costs between three and four million euros.
In some coastal areas, authorities are building a new generation of "super dykes" with significantly broader bases and less-steep inclines. The "super dykes" are designed to offer a more effective barrier against the force of maritime waves and can also be more easily raised to a higher altitude when needed.
"The figures are alarming," Green party (Gruene) leader Annalena Baerbock said about the Spiegel report on Monday.
Baerbock said the data provided evidence that the "climate crisis is intensifying" and had reached Germany as well. "In order to assume our responsibility towards future generations, the federal government must finally start advocating ambitious energy and climate targets, rather than watering these down."
