India
Based on interviews with over 100 climate experts, David Wallace Wells concluded in 2019 that India is "set to be hit the hardest of any country on Earth."
Climate Crises
Air Pollution
According to the AQ Index, 21 out of the 30 most polluted cities in the world were in India in 2019. India was ranked fifth among the world’s most polluted countries.[1]
Sea Level Rise
With more than 20 percent of India’s population (about 250 million people) living within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the sea, the country’s 7,500-kilometer-long coastline is considered the world’s most vulnerable to the impacts of climate collapse, in particular sea level rise.
Over the past 25 years, four of the over 100 islands constituting the Indian Sundarbans (population 4.5 million) have already disappeared: Bedford, Kabasgadi, Suparibhanga, and Lohachara - the first inhabited island in the world to disappear. The inhabitants of these islands became India’s first climate refugees.
In the Sundarbans, Sagar Island is the largest and most populated with more than 200,000 inhabitants. Coastal erosion is happening here faster than anywhere in the world, having risen by ~3cm/year over the last two decades. The area has lost almost 12 percent of its shoreline in the last four decades.
As sea levels rise, salinization creeps into the soil and can ruin crops for multiple seasons while devastating farmer livelihoods. Crop failure can be so dramatic on some parts of the island that a large portion of male residents are forced to find work elsewhere.
By 2050, without coastal defenses, sea level rise would 'erase' Mumbai at high tide.[2]