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Photo by DARRYL DYCK / The Canadian Press / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The problem could well be most dire in Vancouver, said Clague.

“Metro Vancouver is the most vulnerable urban area in Canada to sea level rise,” he said. “We have about 250,000 people living within about a metre of mean sea level.”

At two degrees, hundreds of homes and businesses in North Vancouver would be underwater, as would large parts of the False Creek waterfront. At four degrees, famed Stanley Park becomes an island and the Vancouver neighbourhoods of Mount Pleasant and Fairview become a sea of blue.

Richmond, B.C., is only one metre above sea level now, but director of engineering John Irving said Wednesday the city has been preparing for sea level rise for years. Between building up existing dikes and building “superdikes” that are more than 50 metres wide, the city is getting ready as fast as it can, he said.

In most communities, flood prevention is in the early planning stages, focused largely on preventing new development in high-risk areas and building dikes around existing areas to try and keep them from harm.

It's a global problem and the cost of dealing with this or not dealing with it, depending on what happens, is enormous

Then there are the costs: Clague said in the Fraser Delta area alone, it would cost a projected $10 billion to build up against coastal and Fraser River flooding.

The Fraser Basin Council in 2016 found 71 per cent of its existing dikes were vulnerable in the event of a major coastal flood or on the Fraser River.

The cause of rising sea levels is twofold. Global warming is happening twice as fast in the Arctic as it is in the rest of the world, and sea ice is melting at a rapid pace. In addition, the oceans are warming up and warmer water takes up more space.