most popular:
100s of Dead Penguins



most popular: She Can Burn Her Water


most popular:
Affordable Electric Car


th comments
Al said: "Gee thanks TH, for your wonderful censorship. That's 5 comment's I've left now over a period of about a month (on 5 different stories), and NONE g..." [read]

stevejust said: "I really didn't know it was possible to hate someone more the Bob Novak. But Bob Novak has shown me it is actually possible to hate him more than ..." [read]

Jeremy said: "I haven't been able to find a route in this city where selecting this option gives a result any different from the avoid highways checkbox. I also ..." [read]

surfndano said: "Imagine, for a second, that he didn't have enough free flier miles......." [read]

P said: "I just filled up my Prius today, and a man stopped me and teased me about how Prii don't get the 52-60 advertised. My response: 1)mine does 2)his c..." [read]

See For Yourself: Interactive Sea Level Rise Explorer

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 04.14.08
Travel & Nature

Sea Level Rise Explorer, Florida

The Sea Level Rise Explorer is an interactive map that shows how high above sea level the coastal areas of the globe are. It's based on version 2 of NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, so it should be pretty accurate.

Above is Florida and part of the Gulf of Mexico seen from pretty high above. Since the map is based on Google Maps, it's easy to zoom in on very precise locations. Below are close ups of New Orleans, the Netherlands and Shanghai.

Sea Level Rise Explorer, New Orleans

New Orleans.

Sea Level Rise Explorer, Netherlands

The Netherlands.

Sea Level Rise Explorer, Shangai area

Shanghai.

If you happen to live in an area that is barely above sea level, don't panic. A rise in the sea level won't happen overnight. There's still a lot of uncertainty in the scientific models, and the possible range of change is fairly big.

But the reason why this problem must be taken very seriously is the sheer magnitude of the potential impact. Hundreds of millions of people are located in these coastal areas, as well as important ecosystems. We can't afford to wait and see, because if we get to catastrophic runaway global warming, it'll be too late to change course.

::Sea Level Rise Explorer

See also: ::Flood Maps: View Sea Level Rise, ::Sea Level Rise this Century Higher than Previously Thought, ::The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, ::The 4 Stages of Global Warming Denial

Comments (4)

This is crisis many people seem to neglect. I guess it takes catastrophes for people to finally wake up to the truth that we can't treat our planet like a trash bin.

I would like to initiate the "one meter" project, and have it adopted by Greenpeace.

In every ocean city, on ALL major streets, we need signs erected at the spot where flooding will cover if we have a one meter sea level rise.
Two of every three people on the planet live within 100 km of where these signs need to be erected.

People need to see that there will truly be a catastrophic consequence to inaction, and business as usual.

One meter.
It matters.

jump to top John Taylor [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

This is nice and all but perhaps you should look at the table below the map where its estimates for the time frame of sea level rise are way way off in comparison with current thinking, basically it says in the chart that a 1 meter rise is very likely ..... IN 100 YRS! This sort of estimate has not been take seriously by any scientists for some time now and the current projection is 1 or more meters in the next decade or so..... quite a difference. I wonder if this information is just outdated or an effort to provide erroneous information??

jump to top John says:

I live in the Netherlands...
But I think a worldmap which includes the poor areas, gives a better picture of how desastreus the raising water will be. The Netherlands have prooved that living under sealevel is possible, with a truckload of money of course. In other countries, it's the poor people that live in the danger areas (Bangladesh, New Orleans) and don't get protection from the water.

jump to top Marjolein says:

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

th ads
th top picks
th ads