Lost coastal ecosystems
Due to warmer and more acidic oceans, rising sea levels, overfishing and other threats, as many as 980,000 hectares of coastal ecosystems — an area larger than New York City — is destroyed each year. What’s worse, the 1-to-4-foot sea-level rise expected by 2100 will only intensify the storm surges and erosion ruining the planet’s coral reefs, shoreline forests and tidal wetlands. As these ecosystems are damaged and lost, island nations and coastal communities are most at risk.