Which Future Will We Choose?

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

Museo del Hombre del Puerto Cleto Ciocchini (Museum of the Harbor Man), Mar del Plata, Argentina

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ARG__0__Mar_del_Plata__Museo_del_Hombre_del_Puerto_Cleto_Ciocchini__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
ARG__0__Mar_del_Plata__Museo_del_Hombre_del_Puerto_Cleto_Ciocchini__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 Museo del Hombre del Puerto Cleto Ciocchini (Museum of the Harbor Man) in Mar del Plata, Argentina 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.