The United Nations chief warned Tuesday that global sea levels have risen faster since 1900 and their relentless increase puts countries like Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands at risk and acutely endangers nearly 900 million people living in low-lying coastal areas. In a grim speech to the Security Council’s first-ever meeting on the threat to international peace and security from rising sea levels, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared that sea levels will rise significantly even if global warming is “miraculously” limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the elusive international goal. He warned the Earth is more likely on a path to warming that amounts to “a death sentence” for countries vulnerable to that rise, including many small island nations. In addition to threatened countries, Guterres said, “mega-cities on every continent will face serious effects, including Cairo, Lagos, Maputo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Santiago.” The U.N. chief stressed that every fraction of a degree in global warming counts, since sea level rise could double if temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and could increase exponentially with further temperature increases. The World Meteorological Organization released data Tuesday spelling out the grave danger of rising seas, Guterres said. “Global average sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than over any preceding century in the last 3,000 years,” he said. “The global ocean has warmed faster over the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years.” According to the data cited by Guterres, the global mean sea level will rise by about 2 to 3 meters (about 6.5 to 9.8 feet) over the next 2,000 years if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. With a 2-degree Celsius increase, seas could rise up to 6 meters (19.7 feet), and with a 5-degree Celsius increase, seas could rise up to 22 meters (72 feet), according to the WMO. “Our world is hurtling past the 1.5-degree warming limit that a livable future requires, and with present policies, is careening towards 2.8 degrees — a death sentence for vulnerable countries,” Guterres said. Read more: Rising sea levels put one-third Bangladeshis at risk of displacement: IMF The consequences are unthinkable, Guterres said. Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear, the world would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale, and competition would become ever fiercer for fresh water, land and other resources. Guterres has been trying to call the world’s attention to the dangers posed by climate change, to spur action. In October, he warned that the world is in “a life-or-death struggle” for survival as “climate chaos gallops ahead” and accused the world’s 20 wealthiest countries of failing to do enough to stop the planet from overheating. In November, he said the planet is heading toward irreversible “climate chaos” and urged global leaders to put the world back on track to cut emissions, keep promises on climate financing and help developing countries speed their transition to renewable energy. The landmark Paris agreement adopted in 2015 to address climate change called for global temperatures to rise a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Guterres said the world must address the climate crisis as the root cause of rising seas, and the Security Council has a critical role to play in building the political will required. The Security Council meeting, organized by Malta, which holds the council presidency this month, heard speakers from some 75 countries, large and small, endangered and landlocked, all voicing concern about the impact of the contining rising seas on the future of the world — and for some, the survival of their own countries. Samoa’s U.N. ambassador, Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei Luteru, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States which he chairs, told the council: “There is a litany of new examples of the sudden and slow onset impact of climate change on small islands, from king tides, to super hurricanes to the unstoppable and unprecedented rise in sea levels.” The impact on people and the economies of the islands “will continue to be extraordinary,” he said, raising issues of their survival and continuation as states. Alliance members “are among the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases that drive climate change and sea level rise. Yet, we face some of the most severe consequences of rising sea levels,” Lutero said. “To expect small island state to shoulder the burden of sea level rise, without assistance from the international community will be the pinnacle of inequities.” He said that cooperation to address rising seas is “a legal obligation” for every country, and that there is an urgent need for nations to fulfill their international commitments on climate change and finance. Ambassador Amatlain Kabua of the Marshall Islands said many of the tools to address climate change and rising seas are already in from of the Security Council, and “more focused action from the international system can be invited.” But she said, “What is needed most in the political will to start the job, supported by a U.N. special representative” to spur global action. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that “the threat of sea level rise is real, it is a direct result of our climate crisis, and it is a matter of international peace and security.” “The council must take action,” she said, pointing to the threat of hundreds of millions in low-lying coastal areas losing their homes, livelihoods and communities. “Fortunately, the worst impacts can be avoided, but we have to act now, and we have to act together," Thomas-Greenfield said. General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi said, “At the current rate, sea levels will be 1 to 1.6 meters higher by 2100, according to the World Climate Research Program.” “In the Nile and Mekong Deltas — some of the richest agricultural regions in the world — ten to twenty percent of arable land will sink beneath the waves,” he said. “Climate induced sea-level rise is also provoking new legal questions that are at the very core of national and state identity. What happens to a nation’s sovereignty — including U.N. membership — if it sinks beneath the sea?” he asked. “Science tells us that whether cities or countries disappear depends on whether we as humans counteract the threat,” Kőrösi said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday that more than 35,000 people have died in Turkey as a result of last week’s earthquake, making it the deadliest such disaster since the country’s founding 100 years ago. While the death toll is almost certain to rise even further, many of the tens of thousands of survivors left homeless were still struggling to meet basic needs, like finding shelter from the bitter cold. Confirmed deaths in Turkey passed those recorded from the massive Erzincan earthquake in 1939 that killed around 33,000 people. Erdogan said 105,505 were injured as a result of the Feb. 6 quake centered around Kahramanmaras and its aftershocks. Almost 3,700 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, taking the combined toll in both countries to over 39,000. The Turkish president, who has referred to the quake as “the disaster of the century,” said more than 13,000 people were still being treated in hospital. Speaking in Ankara following a five-hour Cabinet meeting held at the headquarters of disaster agency AFAD, Erdogan said 47,000 buildings, which contained 211,000 residences, had been destroyed or were so badly damaged as to require demolition. “We will continue our work until we get our last citizen out of the destroyed buildings,” Erdogan said of ongoing rescue efforts. Aid agencies and governments were stepping up efforts to bring help to devastated parts of Turkey and Syria. The situation was particularly desperate in Syria, where a 12-year civil war has complicated relief efforts and meant days of wrangling over how to even move aid into the country, let alone distribute it. Some people there said they have received nothing. In Turkey, meanwhile, families huddled in train cars. The Syrian Health Ministry announced a final count of 1,414 deaths and 1,357 injuries in areas under government control. Read more: UN appeals for $397 million to help Syrian quake survivors On Tuesday, the United Nations launched a $397 million appeal to provide “desperately needed, life-saving relief for nearly 5 million Syrians” for three months. It came a day after the global body announced a deal with Damascus to deliver U.N. aid through two more border crossings from Turkey to rebel-held areas of northwest Syria — but the needs remained enormous. Ahmed Ismail Suleiman set up a shelter of blankets outside his damaged house in the town of Jinderis, one of the worst-hit communities in northwest Syria. He was afraid to move his family back into a house that might not be structurally sound, so 18 people slept outside under the makeshift tent. Read more: Syria's Assad could reap rewards from aid crossing deal “We sit but can’t sleep lying down here," he said. “We are waiting for a proper tent.” Mahmoud Haffar, head of the town council, said residents have been able to scrounge up about 2,500 tents so far, but some 1,500 families still remain without shelter — as nighttime temperatures fall to around minus 4 degrees Celsius (26 degrees Fahrenheit). “We are ... still hearing the question of when will aid get in,” said Haffar. While tents have been in short supply, one women said the town had a surplus of donated bread and water. To the southwest, in government-held Latakia, Raeefa Breemo said only those packing into shelters seemed to be getting aid. “We need to eat, we need to drink, we need to survive. Our jobs, our lives, everything have stopped," Breemo said. Offers of help — from rescue crews and doctors to generators and food — have come from around the world, but the needs remain immense after the magnitude 7.8 quake and powerful aftershocks toppled or damaged tens of thousands of buildings, destroyed roads and closed airports for a time. The quake affected 10 provinces in Turkey that are home to some 13.5 million people, as well as a large area in northwest Syria that is home to millions. Much of the water system in the quake-hit region was not working, and Turkey’s health minister said samples from dozens of points of the system showed the water was unsuitable to drink. In the Turkish port city of Iskenderun, displaced families have sheltered in train carriages since last week. While many have left in recent days for nearby camps or other parts of Turkey, dozens of people were still living in the trains on Tuesday. “The wagons have become our home,” 50-year-old Nida Karahan told Anadolu Agency. While a first Saudi aid plane, carrying 35 tons of food, landed in Syrian government-held Aleppo on Tuesday, getting aid to the country's rebel-held Idlib has been especially complicated. Until Monday’s deal between the U.N. and the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, the global body had only been allowed to deliver aid to the area through a single border crossing with Turkey, or via government territory. The newly opened crossings at Bab al-Salam and Al Raée are to function for an initial period of three months. Russia bristled at suggestions that the opening of the crossings might be made permanent, and its Foreign Ministry accused the West of trying to get aid “exclusively” to areas not controlled by the Syrian government. Major humanitarian organizations welcomed the development but cautioned that logistical problems remain, even as the first U.N. aid convoy with 11 trucks entered northwestern Syria through Bab al-Salam Tuesday. “This is a constant back and forth in negotiations,” said World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier. “Every party has to agree to receive convoys.” The death toll in both countries is nearly certain to rise as search teams turn up more bodies — and the window for finding survivors was closing. Nevertheless, more than 200 hours after the quake struck, teacher Emine Akgul was pulled from an apartment building in Antakya by a mining search and rescue team, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported. In Adiyaman province, rescuers reached 18-year-old Muhammed Cafer Cetin, and medics gave him an IV with fluids before attempting a dangerous extraction from a building that crumbled further as rescuers were working. Medics fitted him with a neck brace and he was carted away on a stretcher with an oxygen mask, Turkish TV showed. Many in Turkey have blamed faulty construction for the vast devastation, and authorities continued targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed. Turkey has introduced construction codes that meet earthquake-engineering standards, but experts say the codes are rarely enforced. Erdogan announced Tuesday that the government planned to start construction of 30,000 houses in March. “Our aim is to complete the construction of high quality and safe buildings in a year to meet the housing need in the entire earthquake zone,” he said. At a temporary shelter in a sports center in Afrin in northwest Syria, 190 families were sleeping on the floor of a basketball court, lying on mats typically used for training. The families attempted to create a semblance of privacy by hanging blankets on columns or sports bars. Sabah el Khodr said she and her two toddlers have been sick for the last nine days. The children were wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the floor of the court. Local officials said the shelter is temporary, until new tents are secured.