"When the currents change this autumn and winter, the oil, which has been moving south, will start to move north, circling from right to left like a clock, and will eventually hit those coastlines," said Fouad Hamdan, director of the environmental group Friends of the Earth Europe.
New subduction zones may appear off the eastern coast of North and South America, and mountain chains will form along those coastlines.
But even compared with similar sea-front countries those without coastlines have lagged behind.
Let me clear that you will not read about the popular, touristy, money-making islands such as St. Lucia, Ibiza, or Boracay - but rather, those untouched coastlines and hidden beauties that you may never have heard of before.
When Hurricane Sandy hit the New York region on Oct. 29, it delivered a painful blow to thousands of residents, devastating not only those on the coastline, but also people already facing financial hardship.
These migration routes, especially those of shorebirds and waterfowl, often follow the coastlines of continents; however, some species cross extensive bodies of water.
Magic Seaweed kept tabs on those heading to coastlines across western Europe, noting that: "Big-wave surfers from across The Pond have been instagramming flight tickets with Lisbon emblazoned in black ink, for this is a storm which has the potential to be right there in the final percentile".
But some places, such as those located along coastlines, are simply luckier than others, since crosswinds can dilute air pollution, Pandey says.
Our thriving multi-billion dollar tourist industry takes advantage of all those pristine sandy coastlines and temperate rainforests and spectacular coral reefs and vivid red desertscapes.
For poor people in poor countries, particularly those living along coastlines, in river deltas, or on islands, it is a clear and present danger -- and increasingly, a dominant fact of life.
Like certain other scientists before him, Wegener became impressed with the similarity in the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa and speculated that those lands had once been joined together.
