Which Future Will We Choose?

Climate and energy choices this decade will influence how high sea levels rise for hundreds of years.

Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

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ZAF__0__Cape_Town__Cape_Town_City_Centre__L13__3p0C.jpg
If we keep our current carbon path
(3°C global warming)
(3°C warming)
Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO Image Landsat / Copernicus Image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
ZAF__0__Cape_Town__Cape_Town_City_Centre__L13__1p5C.jpg
If we sharply cut carbon pollution
(1.5°C global warming)
(1.5°C warming)
Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO Image Landsat / Copernicus Image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
Present-day sea level1.1°C1.5°C2°C3°C4°C

These images show projected future sea levels at Cape Town City Centre in Cape Town, South Africa due to human-caused global warming under two different scenarios. Climate and energy choices in the coming few decades could set the destination, but the timing of rise is more difficult to project: these sea levels may take hundreds of years to be fully realized.