Can Singapore Save the World From Sinking?
A plan to fight climate change is ambitious but costly. Imagine footing the bill for the first transcontinental railroad — every 18 months for 100 years.
When the financing reflects the scale of the ambition.
Photographer: Bettmann/Getty
Nearly a third of the global financial center of Singapore sits less than five meters above sea level. If global warming continues unabated, an area as large as 3,400 football fields in the center of the small city-state could be inundated by 2100, flooding the vital business district and some of its most valuable infrastructure.
Many coastal cities share a sinking feeling nowadays, but Singapore’s example stands out for a couple of reasons. First, the island is choosing fight over flight. Second, the fiscally conservative nation is asking current taxpayers to share the cost of an expensive battle, even though the worst of the threat will only materialize if Antarctica and Greenland lose their ice in the second half of the century.