trump plaza jersey city new jersey climate change Google Earth/Climate Central

Sea levels are rising at accelerating rates.

Research group Climate Central created illustrations to show what could become of major US cities, should the worst climate-change predictions come true.

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The world’s sea levels are rising at faster and faster rates as waters warm and ice sheets melt.

Researchers led by Steve Nerem, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, looked at satellite data dating back to 1993 to track sea-level rise.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal in 2018, show that sea levels aren’t just rising. The rate has been accelerating over the past 25 years.

Even small increases can have huge consequences, experts on climate say. If the worst climate-change predictions come true, coastal US cities from New York to New Orleans will be devastated by flooding and greater exposure to storm surges by 2100.

The research group Climate Central has created a plug-in for Google Earth to illustrate how catastrophic an unlikely, „extreme“ sea-level-rise scenario would be if the flooding happened today, based on 2017 projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

You can install the plug-in and see what might become of major US cities.

Disturbing before-and-after images show what major US cities could look like in the year 2100

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