Climate models

Climate models show coastal areas threatened by rising seas


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LOS ANGELES (KCAL / KCBS) – Climate change is an important part of President Joe Biden’s agenda – a point that will be in the foreground on his next trip to the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Could 50 cities in the world completely change or even disappear because of climate change? A nonprofit said it can and wants to show you how.

New climate models highlight just how serious the problem is.

They show that parts of Southern California could be submerged in the next century if people don’t do something now.

“Their ability to exist in the future depends on the actions we take,” said Benjamin Strauss, CEO of Climate Central, who researched and created striking images of landmarks around the world, including some parts of the world. Southern California like Long Beach and Huntington Beach.

The Santa Monica Pier is a landmark, but these models show that anything could go away.

A model shows the Santa Monica promenade underwater, according to projections by climatologists, which could come true over the next few centuries if temperatures and sea levels rise without human intervention.

“It’s really sad to think that he might one day disappear under rising seas,” Strauss said.

Projections range from 1 to 4 degrees of warming, with the worst-case scenarios showing seas rising over 20 feet.

In the Long Beach footage, high tides push all the way up to Highway 405, and much of Huntington Beach is also underwater.

“Really, the neighborhoods from Golden West to Los Altos would be way below sea level, could be almost 10 feet,” Strauss said.

While images like these could be hundreds of years in the future, scientists have said climate change is already wreaking havoc along the coastline.

“It’s not something that looks to the future; it’s happening right now, ”said John Dorsey, a professor at Loyola Marymount University who studies sea level rise.

He points out that the loss of beaches and the tourists they bring could drain Southern California’s economy, and said infrastructure such as water pipes, sewers and highways would also be lost.

“If we get this coastal erosion, it could erode and start destroying this kind of infrastructure. We’re going to pay billions of dollars to try to move this inland, ”Dorsey said.

Climate scientists have said that part of this could be avoided if people take significant steps to reduce emissions over the next decade.

Copyright 2021 KCAL / KCBS via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.

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