Coming Soon...Waterworld

floodduwamish6m.jpg

Last week a commenter pointed out Flood Maps which pairs NASA elevation data with Google Maps and show us the various lands we'd lose if the ocean were to raise a variable amount of meters. Worldchanging hit on this at the end of March:

For some people, global warming is a hard sell. Temperatures going up by a few degrees doesn't sound all that bad, and even results like drought or increased spread of mosquitos and other pests, while certainly unpleasant, are familiar issues. Mega-problems like whiplash/abrupt climate change, where warming leads to an ice age, can sound more surreal than threatening. But this website might change their minds. It shows something that is obviously warming-related, is already starting to happen (not just a "might happen 50 years down the road" possibility), and is a clear danger to the industrialized world's economies and societies: a seven meter rise in sea levels.

Above is a map showing that Harbor Island and huge portions of the waterfront and Duwamish valley would disappear if the sea level raised 6 meters. Expand this post to see way more maps than necessary of Salmon Bay and the locks.

A 2 meter increase in sea level.

flood2m.jpg

6 meter increase...

flood6m.jpg

10 meter increase...

flood10m.jpg

14 meters.

flood14m.jpg

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Comments (7) [rss]

By commentator you mean me. My girlfriend does not like to hear me talk about environmental issues. She thinks it can be a little to depressing.

If this isn't an illustration of Starbucks' power over this world, I don't know what is:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7233/starbucks9es.jpg

Well Paul they do own the whole building since that is their corporate HQ.

Um, SEVEN METERS? Who's predicting a sea level rise of even 1 meter?

It has not escaped my notice that the present site of Liftport World HQ is on what will become Bremerton Island.

Which is all kinds of cool. Yes, watery destruction, end-of-the-world type stuff. But after the water-clypse - I'll get to work on a a frickin island. All kinds of watery goodnesss for a boy from Oklahoma.

This is clear proof of the futility of rebuilding a new roadway along the present waterfront, elevated or underground. Why not just wait 30 or 40 years, and by then we'll have another ready-made "viaduct", one we happen to refer to today as, "I-5".

COMTE: Brilliant! This is similar to my suggestion that everyone in California buy their land in Bakersfield...in 50 years they'll be the next Laguna Beach.

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