LOS ANGELES (NEXSTAR) — The most severe impacts of climate change may seem far and far from home, but a series of dramatic photographic representations released by Climate Central bring the prospect of sea level rise surprisingly close to home. Climate Central is an organization of scientists and journalists focused on studying the impacts of climate change and the warming of global temperatures. The group recently published its project “Imagining Our Future”, which shows what the world's monuments and cities would look like if the planet warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, and what it would look like if we warmed 3 degrees above those same levels. In the series of sliding images below, the image on the left represents a 1.5-degree warming scenario that is the goal of the Paris Agreement.
The answer to the question "Will Los Angeles be underwater?" might be surprising to some. According to scientists, the sea level is expected to rise 1.3 meters by the year 2100. The city of Los Angeles isn't the only coastal city facing flood waters. Miami, New Orleans, and Atlantic City are also facing the prospect of flooding.
Miami
If sea levels rise at the predicted rate, by 2050, much of Miami Beach will be under water. This is a devastating prediction for this popular beach resort. Despite its beautiful climate and vibrant nightlife, Miami Beach may soon be underwater. The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that 94 percent of Miami Beach will be underwater by the year 2100. The city is built on porous limestone, which allows seawater to seep up through its streets. This will result in extensive flooding and a cost to maintain beachfront properties.
The melting ice caps in the Atlantic Ocean have also increased water levels, resulting in higher tides and less rain. The state of Florida is especially susceptible to these changes. Some areas of southern California's beaches could be underwater by 2100, with Venice, for example, suffering from frequent flooding.
Atlantic City
As sea levels rise, coastal cities are at risk of becoming underwater. This includes Atlantic City, New Jersey. Currently, the boardwalk in Atlantic City is a major tourist attraction, but rising sea levels could wipe out the boardwalk and leave a ghost town. This could happen in as few as sixty years.
Atlantic City, New Jersey, is a famous East Coast beach resort and gambling mecca. However, the recent Superstorm Sandy tore apart houses in this town and forced residents to leave. Climate Central reports that the city faces a 74% chance of at least one 5-foot flood by 2050.
Los Angeles
The state of California has a growing problem of sea level rise, and Los Angeles is no exception. The region is expected to increase in height by between 0.1 to 0.6 meters (five to twenty four inches) from 2000 to 2050, and by 0.4 to 1.7 meters (17 to sixty-six inches) by 2100. The city already experiences coastal flooding due to tides, wave-driven runup, and storm surge, but sea level rise will make these effects even worse.
A time traveler on YouTube claims that Los Angeles will be underwater in 50 years. The time traveler is Kasper, a character on ApexTV, a time-traveling YouTube channel that boasts one million subscribers. He wears a pixelated face and speaks in heavily accented English. He claims to have been in the city in 5000 and encountered a man who told him it would be under water.
San Francisco
Scientists are warning us that the city will become underwater if the climate continues to change. If we don't take steps to prevent climate change, sea levels could rise twenty feet by the end of the century. This would mean the ocean will cover the entirety of San Francisco. The city's airports will become underwater, and the city's low-lying areas like Alameda and Foster City will flood. Currently, Houston has a 98-degree-Fahrenheit climate, but that could change by 2100.
Sea level rise is already making land in the San Francisco Bay more vulnerable to flooding. Experts believe that as sea levels rise, up to 12 inches of land could be submerged. This will cause massive property damage and a mass exodus of people from coastal areas. In fact, it is estimated that more than 300,000 people will be forced to move inland, and those people will be forced to seek new homes.
The image on the right shows what “sea level rise” would look like on a planet that warmed by 3 degrees Celsius. A change of 1.5 degrees Celsius equals 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit; 3 degrees Celsius is 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in August, the world is ready to overcome the crucial threshold of 1.5 degrees in the early 2030s. But that doesn't mean we're going to see these flood scenarios in the next ten years.
This is because as the Earth warms, it takes time for polar ice to melt, sea levels rise, and oceans to expand (which they do when they warm). These projections show that total and eventual impact. Scientists are confident in these results. They're just not sure of the exact time,” Girard explained.
It's a concept that can be difficult to understand in the abstract, but these images make the effects of rising sea levels tangible and real. Not all of the places represented are coastal (although many are). Climate Central imagery series also shows the impact of rising sea levels on inland communities. Girard hopes that complex science will translate into something meaningful to people when they see these images.
World Cities and Monuments Will Be Affected by Sea Level Rise on Climate Central Website. Before it was the vibrant city we know, Los Angeles was underwater for more than 90 million years. Explore the underwater kingdom of ancient Los Angeles, when much of the area of L, A. it was submerged under the waves of the prehistoric Pacific Ocean.
Los Angeles and other coastal areas of the United States will experience frequent flooding, degraded infrastructure and other profound challenges as sea levels rise to 1 foot by 2050, according to a federal study released Tuesday. Barnard said it's hard to imagine urban coastal areas like Los Angeles completely retiring, but “it will definitely be more expensive to defend the coast and more expensive to maintain the beaches around. Representations include a look at Los Angeles County's particularly vulnerable communities, such as Santa Monica, Long Beach and Marina Del Rey. Not all of Los Angeles will be overwhelmed by water at first, and as a huge, sprawling city, the areas further inland have little to worry about in terms of seeing direct flooding.
And while some residents may choose to move, many of the communities most vulnerable to coastal flooding and other climate change hazards are low-income communities with limited mobility, according to a separate Los Angeles County report released late last year. LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - A climate-focused non-profit organization has demonstrated in models how some 50 cities around the world could change or even disappear as a result of climate change. Underwater, this extinct ammonoid (Eupachydiscus) swam across Los Angeles 74 million years ago, when large dinosaurs were still roaming the coast of Southern California. .
