Vietnam: 1/3 of delta, where 17 mil ppl live, half country's rice is grown, may be submerged if sea rises by 3 ft

(quote)

In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report released last month says that more than one-third of the delta, where 17 million people live and nearly half the country’s rice is grown, could be submerged if sea levels rise by 3 feet in the decades to come. In a more modest projection, it calculates that one-fifth of the delta would be flooded, said Tran Thuc, who leads Vietnam’s National Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Sciences and is the chief author of the report. Storm surges could periodically raise that level, he said, and experts say an intrusion of salt water and industrial pollution could contaminate much of the remaining delta area.

(unquote)

Photos courtesy of AFP / Getty and EPA

Original Source: NY Times