ScienceClimate change is real, and it's coming.
A new report from British medical journal The Lancet finds that its effects will be more severe than we thought: Compared with 1990s levels, as many as four times as many people will be exposed to extreme rains; the number of people who experience drought will likely triple, the New York Times reports.
Of course, all of us will be affected in different ways. How will your country fare?
The folks at Eco Experts put together a great infographic based on data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation (ND-Gain) Index, an annual ranking of which countries are best poised to adapt to a warming world.
While the maps provide a great zoomed-out perspective of what's going to happen globally as the earth warms, there are a few caveats to keep in mind when checking it out:
- The map is based on rankings, not comprehensive evaluations of each country. In other words, the best-ranked countries are only as great as they seem compared against the countries that aren't performing so well.
- The map looks only at the country-level. All of the state-specific, region-specific, or city-specific data gets somewhat lost in this zoomed out perspective. While the US gets a green-light on this map, for example, specific parts of the country are far less well-equipped to handle climate change, including Miami and New York City.
- Developed countries as a whole have far more infrastructure to adapt to a warming planet. The government can force people in coastal cities like Miami Beach to move inland; we can also build new airports and transit hubs closer to the center of the country. The map reflects countries' abilities to do just that.
Here's the full graphic:
The Eco Experts