The Marina Barrage, a dam in Singapore.
Photographer: Joseph Nair for Bloomberg MarketsMarkets Magazine
Singapore Is Fighting Rising Seas to Save $50 Billion in Real Estate
The island nation won’t cede “an inch of land,” a government official pledges.
During a half-century of independence, Singapore has fought to expand its territory, inch by hard-won inch. On the tip of the Malaysian peninsula, the island city-state piled up sand to expand its coastline and reclaim land from the sea.
In that time, Singapore has grown by one-quarter, adding landmass more than twice the size of Manhattan. At 284 square miles, Singapore is now approaching the size of all five boroughs of New York City. It plans to grow an additional 4% by 2030. It’s a striking accomplishment, given that many other coasts are receding because of rising sea levels, a result of climate change.