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The New York Times carried maps yesterday that sketch what percentage of currently
dry land in a number of U.S. cities will be under water if sea levels continue to rise.

It’s a pretty scary picture.


What Could Disappear

Maps show coastal and low-lying areas that would be permanently flooded, without engineered protection, in three levels of higher seas. Percentages are the portion of dry, habitable land within the city limits of places listed that would be permanently submerged. (The projections below are based on a sea-level rise of 25 feet–Editor)



Downtown Newark, downtown Jersey City,
Atlantic City, most of the state’s coastal towns
and the Cape May peninsula are all gone.



Downtown Boston shrinks to mostly Beacon Hill.
Many shore communities are flooded


Much of the historic district and South Philadelphia
are submerged, as is the vast refinery complex
along the Schuylkill River. The Delaware swells to
five miles wide.

                            Say good-bye to all of Long Island’s barrier islands.

No immediate need to start work on your arc, however. See the ever-important Notes on Sea Level Estimates.

To get the full effect of the interactive maps, you need to click here and try the 5 feet, 12 feet and 25 feet selections. Each automatically paints different sea-level scenarios on each of the city maps. It’s a very cool use of graphics that would not be possible in the newsprint edition of the paper. One more reason to love the Internet.

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