Looks like Boston won't be sinking due to global warming in my life time

[darxus]

Highest projected sea level increase by 2100: 200 cm = 2 m = 6.6 feet (from wikipedia)
Interactive map showing what areas would be flooded: http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/

I'm not suggesting that climate change isn't one of the many reasons we're doomed, or that there aren't lots of people currently living in places that might be likely to get flooded. Or that this kind of rise couldn't make hurricanes much more interesting in Boston. But I think somebody recently commented to me that Boston was in danger of being flooded due to sea level rise, and I just got an email from my mom on a slightly related subject, which caused me to try to look this stuff up.

Comments

[sensesurfer.livejournal.com]

The map shows what would be flooded on a calm day. Add a tropical storm or a hurricane which can easily add another 10-15' of storm surge and you end up with a very different situation.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

I did include in my post "I'm not suggesting that... this kind of rise couldn't make hurricanes much more interesting in Boston."

I realize it can cause problems. It just turned out that the scale of ocean level rise was smaller than I had been thinking.

[beowabbit]

You might be interested in reading Curt Stager’s Deep Future, which I wrote about here.

(As far as the specific numbers, there’s a lot that’s unknown, and for all sorts of reasons the rise is going to be different in different places. I know there’s a point in the book where Stager talks about recent sea-level rise predictions, but I don’t remember specifics.)

[temalyen.livejournal.com]

I once heard a scientist speaking on this subject, and his opinion was the climate shifting colder overall is what would doom us. He was of the opinion that, if the overall climate is getting warmer, it'd be more beneficial than anything else. It'd turn deserts into usable land, make more land farmable, and human technology could negate any negative changes due to rising water.

I should note this particular person (whose name I forget, but could find if you care) was on Coast to Coast AM (generally seen as the home of wackos), but the guest himself is fairly well respected. But it was definitely something interesting to think about.