An article in the Sunday, NY Times (11/25/12) presents maps of New York, Boston, San Francisco, Miami, and Virginia Beach were the ocean to rise 5 feet, 12 feet, and 25 feet. If you click on the article’s “multimedia” map, you will be taken to a page that has an adjustable timeline for those and other coastal cities— fascinating and horrifying—or you can skip the article and just go to the maps: http://nyti.ms/10OhU8c.

The light blue is the area that will be underwater in Boston when the ocean rises 12′. It includes the Back Bay, where I live, a large part of Cambridge, and most of the downtown of the city.

No one can predict precisely how high the ocean will rise in a given time, but the article states a probable rise of five feet in the next 100 years or, if we make severe cuts in polluting fossil fuels, 300 years. With only moderate cuts, the oceans may rise 12′ by 2300. Either way, six million Americans now live less than five feet above high tide; hundreds of millions in other countries do. Furthermore, scientists tell us that no matter how quickly we phase out the burning of fossil fuels, the five foot rise is now unavoidable.

Some cities may be protected from a 5′ rise with harbor barriers but not all, and few if any could be protected from a 12′ rise. Whatever defensive measures we take will have to be accompanied by drastically cutting pollution and engaging in geo-engineering, and the sooner the better.

topics: nature