Scientists are predicting that a wobble in the Moon’s orbit in the mid-2030s could cause an environmental crisis by accelerating the rise of sea levels, displacing as many as 140 million people across the US, China and India.
The wobble – known as a precession – is nothing new – it happens every 18 years – but this time it is coinciding with increased meltwater from glaciers and the thermal expansion of seawater caused by the warming climate.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees worries the combination will deluge huge swathes of the world creating millions of climate refugees – people who have lost their homelands to the rising water.
The World Bank has concluded up to 140 million people could be impacted in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and across Latin America – three times as many people as those displaced by global conflicts.
And the five countries most likely to be affected are The United States, China, India, Bangladesh and The Philippines. To prepare, NASA has begun researching every coastal US state to create maps of likely inundation.
It comes as America locks down as Hurricane Ida lashes the Louisiana shoreline.