Sea-Facing Apartment v/s Facing the Sea, Facing the Changing Climate: Why the Coast and Its People Matter?
NASA-warned submersion risks for 12 major cities, including Chennai and Mumbai, by 2100…. [1] A minimum of 16% of Chennai is expected to become submerged by 2100, which puts a whopping 10 Lakh people at risk in addition to the vulnerable population [2].
I live in Chennai, but the city seems fine… 2100 is far away, but I bet scientists will do their magic by then.
Now that is an oblivious answer. Is 2026 Chennai really fine? Fine for me, yes, but for everyone? Will the sea really swallow it? It doesn't seem like it, does it? Does it really? Over the last three decades, tide gauges and satellite altimetry data confirm the relative sea level rise (RSLR) trend along the Chennai coast is approximately 2.81 mm annually [3].
Seems negligible, but the increase must be affecting someone, but not me. Yet. Who is it affecting then?
Coastal communities stand on the frontlines of climate change because the coast is where slow, invisible shifts in the climate become immediate realities - where rising seas, stronger storms and changing oceans are experienced long before they become statistics for everyone else.
When I tell a random urban, privileged person climate change is the end of our experience of ‘normal’ reality, they are probably going to wonder a) what does ‘normal’ reality mean because yes climate is changing but they are still getting their iced coffee on time and the A/C is working despite the excessive A/C bill they complain about, and b) on climate change? That thing where humans emit carbon dioxide, and the world becomes hotter, well isn’t that like always happening? Well, think about the ice age…
Partly, this urban unnamed person is probably right - yes, climate change has to do with carbon emissions, heating up, but that's where their answer stops making a lot of sense.
Let me clarify the science part first before I introduce the social aspect of climate change - which is not present in the above answer at all.
Yes, climate change is carbon emissions leading to global warming and a rise in average surface temperature. Yes, the ice age and natural climate variability are evident and supported by research. However, a big caveat in that thinking is the assumption that the current warming is also 100% natural. Is it? Not really, no. The current climate change is what is commonly known as ‘anthropogenic ’-man-made. Anthropogenic climate change refers to long-term shifts in weather patterns and global temperatures caused by human activities. It is primarily driven by burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and agriculture, which release greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide and methane) that trap heat in the atmosphere. There are two layers to this: activities that emit greenhouse gases, such as pollution, industrial emissions, and so on, and activities that prevent natural carbon capture (also known as sequestration). This includes deforestation, polluting oceans, and other carbon sinks (places where carbon gets captured and put back into the earth).
So that is one correction to what this unnamed person is thinking about. But truthfully, obliviousness to the details of climate change often shows up like this - ‘it's natural,’ ‘it hasn’t affected me yet,’ and so on.
Now that we’ve debunked ‘it’s natural’, let’s come to ‘it hasn’t affected me yet '. Climate science stops being just science when it reaches the people it is affecting.
Climate change is never experienced equally.
The impacts of climate change rely on a very complex matrix of different markers - geographic vulnerabilities based on where you live and the climate impact there, gender and sex-based vulnerabilities based on social expectations, caste-based vulnerabilities based on stratification and stigma that is socially imposed. There are lots of such markers.
However, taking us back to the beginning, what does this have to do with coastal communities? When I say, ‘coastal communities are on the frontlines of climate change’, the immediate correlation someone can make is the geographic vulnerabilities.
According to the India Disaster Knowledge Network, 12% of the total land mass of India is prone to flooding, and 68% of arable land is vulnerable to drought. The climate variability along India’s coast and the effect of sea-level rise will inevitably have a tremendous socio-economic impact on the local communities and livelihoods. Socio-economic impact specifically because the risks in Indian coastal cities and regions are associated with more intrinsic vulnerabilities rather than just external exposure to hazards.
In Indian coastal cities, one major such intrinsic vulnerability is that socially marginalised, vulnerable and poor communities are being pushed to the coasts and low-lying areas due to rapid population growth; therefore, due to their new geographic location are more likely to face greater climate change challenges.
However, when I said ‘coastal communities are on the frontlines of climate change ’, I also mean frontlines of change, frontlines of change-making - frontlines of resilience.
Indian coastal communities are in some of the most risk-prone geographies of the nation, and therefore their livelihood, shelter, food and occupation are tied to the moods of the ocean and climate. This also means they are the first to receive climate impacts but also respond to them, therefore building some of the most innovative adaptation measures. These measures are built of lived experience, local and indigenous knowledge and are increasingly being integrated into scientific adaptation solutions. These community solutions include local early-warning systems, nature-based solutions, and so on.
One key adaptation measure is diversifying livelihoods, where instead of relying solely on fishing, communities are embracing ecotourism and more alternatives of this nature. Some of these livelihood-diversifying options, such as seaweed farming, allow coastal communities to get additional income rather than replacing their source while also increasing opportunity for women.
While I will delve into these specific adaptation measures in the next article, what I’d like to conclude is this interesting ‘two-sides-of-the-same-coin’ scenario this article has unravelled. Yes, coastal communities are the first to be impacted…but they also seem to be the first to respond, naturally. Yet, it is the stories and knowledge that live in their powerful attempts at building resilience that become lessons for the nation’s adaptation plans. Science and society might seem to be at odds, but innovation, invention, creation - all boil down to mankind that utilises it. So sometimes, I’m hoping this increases, but sometimes science can come from the lived experience of communities at the margins, because their first exposure is what gives us a frame of reference for the magnitude of climate change.
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