NPOC colleagues,
I am raising this within the NPOC discussion group because I want to get a sense of whether this is an issue that should be somewhere on the ICANN agenda. At a minimum ICANN and its communities are constituent stakeholders in this issue.Most analysis sees serious problems within 15 years.
Much of the Internet’s physical infrastructure is situated in locations close to coastal shorelines, connected to the half-million miles of undersea cables. New estimates of sea level rise driven by climate change have tripled earlier estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding. https://www.nature.com/
articles/s41467-019-12808-z The impact of this on human habitation, and human migration, will be catastrophic. Estimates are that by mid-century up to 340 million people will live on land below projected annual flood levels. Current estimates put one billion people now occupying land less than 10 meters above current high tide lines, including 250 million living below 1 meter above current high tide lines. These populations will become a migration tsunami. But that is not the issue I want to raise here.
The impact of sea level rise on the infrastructure of the Internet ecosystem will be equally catastrophic and is approaching fast. Rather than belaboring the point that some action is necessary here, I will just share a short bibliography on the subject. Do we need a discussion?
Sam Lanfranco
The Internet May Be Underwater in 15 Years: https://www.
nationalgeographic.com/ science/2018/07/news-internet- underwater-sea-level-rise/ Buried Internet infrastructure at risk as sea levels rise: https://www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2018/07/180716141627. htm Rising Seas Could Cause Problems for Internet Infrastructure https://biodiversityfunders.
org/rising-seas-could-cause- problems-for-internet- infrastructure/
Sea Level Rise to Jeopardize U.S. Internet Infrastructure In 15 Years https://www.forbes.com/sites/
federicoguerrini/2018/08/11/ sea-level-rise-to-jeopardise- u-s-internet-infrastructure- in-15-years-study-says/# 1fdac65a7cb0 Internet infrastructure will be inundated as sea levels rise: https://www.networkworld.com/
article/3290250/internet- infrastructure-will-be- inundated-as-sea-levels-rise- says-report.html
Key Internet Connections and Locations are at Risk from Rising Seas: https://www.americanscientist.
org/article/key-internet- connections-and-locations-are- at-risk-from-rising-seas The internet is at risk from rising sea levels | World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/
agenda/2018/07/rising-sea- levels-are-coming-for-the- internet Rising sea levels are going to mess with the internet, sooner than you think: https://www.popsci.com/sea-
level-rise-internet- infrastructure/