Clearly the impact of global warming and it’s expected ocean rise on coastal areas is of paramount concern. In the Calcutta region of India, for example, it is estimated that as many as 100 million people will become climate refugees with approximately a 20 foot rise in sea level.

While the near term (21st century) predictions of ocean rise are not generally that extreme yet, solid predictions are impossible to make since the rates of change are changing. Things seem to be accelerating everywhere we look. However, even the most conservative of predictions are for a 1 to 2 meter (3 to 6 foot) rise in ocean levels this century, and these predictions do not incorporate the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets (see IPCC Report).

Here is an interesting site presented by Architecture2030.org depicting what modest ocean rise will do to a variety of America’s coastal cities. ‘Mouse over’ the small inset photo next to the large one, and the large one will show you the change expected with the indicated ocean rise.

• Architecture 2030’s Coastal Impact Study

Coastal innundation from the ocean rise cause by global warming is an international problem.  Here is a link to innundation maps detailing the concerns of scientists from around the world.

• CReSIS (Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets) Sea Level Rise Maps