Half of world’s beaches could vanish by 2100

PARIS: Climate change and sea level rise are currently on track to wipe out half the world’s sandy beaches by 2100, researchers warned on Monday.

Even if humanity sharply reduces the fossil fuel pollution that drives global warming, more than a third of the planet’s sandy shorelines could disappear by then, crippling coastal tourism in countries large and small, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"Apart from tourism, sandy beaches often act as the first line of defence from coastal storms and flooding, and without them impacts of extreme weather events will probably be higher," lead author Michalis Vousdoukas, a researcher at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, told AFP.

"We have to prepare." Some countries, such as the United States, are already planning extensive defence systems, but in most nations such massive engineering schemes will not be unfeasible, unaffordable or both.

Australia could be hit hardest, according to the findings, with nearly 15,000-km of white-beach coastline washed away over the next 80 years, followed by Canada, Chile and the United States. The 10 countries that stand to lose the most sandy shoreline also include Mexico, China, Russia, Argentina, India and Brazil.