India, Oct. 12 -- Climate crisis threatens 89 per cent of the world's most iconic surf breaks as rising seas and coastal development put famous waves at risk. Among the threatened locations are Australia's Noosa, California's Santa Cruz, the UK's Croyde beach and El Salvador's Oriente Salvaje.

A new peer-reviewed study published in Climatic Change assessed 57 internationally significant surf breaks across eight countries.

It found that "while vulnerability profiles and variation within each risk factor are wide-ranging, high proportions of breaks are at risk due to their shoreline resilience (89% are medium or high risk), sensitivity to sea level rise (79% are medium or high risk), and seafloor composition (75% are medium or high risk)....