The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reportedly eclipsed 415 parts per million for the first time in human history. That bodes ill, comments China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang:

One has to go back 3 million years to find a similar concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, at that time average sea levels were about 3 meters higher than now.

In other words, the possibility of the sea level rising a few meters higher than now is no longer a distant threat.

The total amount of losses has not been estimated yet, but they will definitely be huge and beyond imagination.

US scientists have long predicted that Miami, a coastal city in the southern part of Florida state, will be totally under water if sea level rises two or three meters. That will result in an annual production loss of $300 billion.

The world economy will almost surely face a sudden shock with the loss of coastal cities. Not least because with the shrinking global economy and maybe billions of environmental immigrants, world politics will be bigger chaos than it is today. Just look at how badly certain Western governments do facing refugees from the Middle East.

Despite the threat, many countries are still far from acting. Among them, the United States, which has exited the Paris Agreement only two years after signing on it.

It is to be hoped the US government and other governments that hold selfish ideas can wake up soon, because there is not much time left for remedial actions.