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Science in the Fleet: What would your hometown look like with 80 meters Sea Level Rise

Posted on October 16, 2013April 29, 2014 By Andrew Thaler 33 Comments on Science in the Fleet: What would your hometown look like with 80 meters Sea Level Rise
#DrownYourTown, Popular Culture

UPDATE: These posts, and the hashtag are getting a lot of attention, so I’d like to reiterate, Caveat Tweetor (twitter beware) — these models are being generated on the fly as request come in. They are not validated and there are many variables that influence sea level rise which are not taken into account. This is a fun way to visualize potential sea level rise but it would be inadvisable to use it for real estate speculation. 

The central conceit in the world of Fleet–my dystopian maritime science fiction serial adventure–is that sea level has risen 80 meters, an extreme maximum projection under global climate change prediction (INSERT LINK TO USGS DATA HERE AFTER SHUTDOWN ENDS – UPDATE: Oh, neat, we have a federal government again. Here’s the source). Since 80 meters is pretty hard to visualize, I turned to Google Earth to help me simulate what our world would look like under those conditions, starting with my new residence in San Francisco:

FleetSanFran
San Francisco, 80 meters

Oh, but we’re not done yet.

Washington, DC, 80 meters
Washington, DC, 80 meters
Baltimore, 80 meters
Baltimore, 80 meters
New York, 80 meters
New York, 80 meters

Let’s zoom out a bit:

Bad News, Miami, 80 meters
Bad News, Miami, 80 meters
Good thing you outlawed sea level rise, North Carolina, 80 meters
Good thing you outlawed sea level rise, North Carolina, 80 meters
A view from the London Eye. 80 meters
A view from the London Eye. 80 meters
Sydney. Wet. 80 meters
Sydney. Wet. 80 meters
Port Moresby, Papue New Guinea. 80 meters
Port Moresby, Papue New Guinea. 80 meters

And I couldn’t resist my Planet of the Apes image!

Statue of Liberty, 80 meters
Statue of Liberty, 80 meters

Check out Fleet: The Reach and Fleet: Wide Open to experience a world in which people live with 80 meters of sea level rise.

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33 thoughts on “Science in the Fleet: What would your hometown look like with 80 meters Sea Level Rise”

  1. Pascale says:
    October 16, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Pretty certain OKC will remain above the seas, but we will be closer to the beach…

  2. Michael Slater says:
    October 16, 2013 at 9:20 pm

    What about inland cities near lakes and rivers–St Louis, Chicago, Cleveland….?Thanks for doing this.

  3. Bob Zonis says:
    October 16, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    Livingston, NJ?

  4. pcawdron says:
    October 16, 2013 at 11:02 pm

    fascinating stuff… you start this post with the phrase, “The central conceit in the world of fleet…” but I think you mean concept

  5. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 16, 2013 at 11:17 pm

    Thanks! Central conceit is the correct term.

    In drama and other art forms, the central conceit of a work of fiction is the underlying fictitious assumption which must be accepted by the audience with suspension of disbelief so the plot may be seen as plausible.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_conceit

    I’m definitely going to have to take a look at Xenophobia.

  6. ryanstroup says:
    October 17, 2013 at 12:56 am

    How do you get Google Earth water to be blue? My water is grey.

  7. Tim Dewey says:
    October 17, 2013 at 11:11 am

    As I don’t have a twitter account, could you do Jacksonville, Florida, please

  8. UmYeah says:
    October 17, 2013 at 11:52 am

    Denver? Looking forward to ocean front property one day without having to move!

  9. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    It’s not actually water, it’s a blue, semi-transparent polygon overlaid on the Google Earth globe.

  10. Charlene says:
    October 17, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    What about the cities along the Ohio river? Louisville and Cincinnati/Covington?

  11. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 1:14 pm

    We did St. Louis earlier – https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/390608413572345856

  12. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 1:16 pm

    Here’s Livingston, NJ with 100 meters of sea level rise – https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/390889013940219904

  13. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    Jacksonville FL, just for you, at 1 meter sea level rise – https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/390890024499040257

  14. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 1:43 pm

    Here’s Denver with 1612 meters of sea level rise – https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/390895712554061825

  15. Laura Arns says:
    October 17, 2013 at 1:54 pm

    Seattle, WA is probably doomed. Also, Langley AF base should probably consider turning into a Navy one. How many meters required?

  16. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    Here’s Langley – https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/390921899913404416

    You can find Seattle in the next post on the blog.

  17. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    Here’s Louisville with 145 meters of rise – https://twitter.com/SFriedScientist/status/390923904401035264

  18. Jesse says:
    October 17, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    “What about inland cities near lakes and rivers–St Louis, Chicago, Cleveland”

    Just remember that these cities would be unaffected, they are inland and above sea level elevation. Even all Great Lakes cities, will not see any rise as they’re at ~600′.

    Otherwise, very interesting

  19. Rebecca Stefoff says:
    October 17, 2013 at 5:00 pm

    Cool images, and I’m going to check out your serial. What’s your time frame for the 80-meter rise?

  20. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 17, 2013 at 5:03 pm

    The book is set 250ish years in the future. 80 meters is probably way higher than what we’ll actually see.

  21. Cole Bennett says:
    October 17, 2013 at 9:49 pm

    Hey, kudos on the exposure! A couple years back I wrote a short story about the world after it rains for five straight years. That was how I got Denver underwater. It involved beaucoup research for such a short read (alien aquaforming using hydrogen from the sun, rainfall calculations, spherical volumes, etc.), and I wasn’t happy until I could say for sure exactly what was underwater and what wasn’t (from camps at the foot of Mt. Zion, survivors make foraging salvos 9 miles out to the top floors of Wells Fargo, Qwest, and Republic Plaza). So I found the .kml, tweaked it for the level I wanted, and voila. Just had to share, thought you might find it interesting. Good luck with the self-publishing!

    The Drowning World
    http://givethereaderswhattheywant.com/?p=895

  22. Alex says:
    October 18, 2013 at 2:46 am

    Could you do Tokyo? Osaka? Thank you!

  23. Kilkee says:
    October 18, 2013 at 9:29 am

    Ok, how about Portland, Me? We’re obviously right on the coast, but I wonder how far back toward the mountains I need to flee? Thanks.

  24. Tris Stock says:
    October 18, 2013 at 9:44 am

    Perhaps you could write a post explaining how you add these polygons to Google Earth. I wouldn’t know where to start.

  25. Scott Manhart says:
    October 18, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    Now lets take this a do something practical. Lets pull 122 meters out of the oceans so people can see what he coastlines looked like at the peak of the last ice age.

  26. S.Burnett says:
    October 18, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    Good images. How about Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia on the Puget Sound?

  27. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 19, 2013 at 1:07 am

    go for it! http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=15682

  28. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 19, 2013 at 1:07 am

    Check out our step-by-step guide to drowning your town – http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=15682

  29. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 19, 2013 at 1:08 am

    Done! http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=15682

  30. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 19, 2013 at 1:09 am

    Check the hashtag for some fun images from Tokyo.

  31. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 19, 2013 at 1:10 am

    There’s a few shots of Portland on the hashtag!

  32. Nikola Biondic says:
    October 22, 2013 at 8:33 am

    Can you do Zagreb, Croatia?

  33. Andrew David Thaler says:
    October 23, 2013 at 12:27 pm

    I’m not longer taking requests, but here are the step-by-step directions so that you can drown your town! http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=15682

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