See For Yourself: Interactive Sea Level Rise Explorer
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 04.14.08
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.
New Orleans.
The Netherlands.
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.
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
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.
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 I wonder if this information is just outdated or an effort to provide erroneous information??
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.