Which Future Will We Choose?

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

Plaza de la Catedral, Havana, Cuba

DownloadView on Map
CUB__0__Havana__Plaza_de_la_Catedral__L13__3p0C__photorealistic.jpg
If we keep our current carbon path
(3°C global warming)
(3°C warming)
Derivative of Plaza de la Catedral of Havana (Jan 2014) by Gorupdebesanez under CC BY-SA 3.0
CUB__0__Havana__Plaza_de_la_Catedral__L13__1p5C__photorealistic.jpg
If we sharply cut carbon pollution
(1.5°C global warming)
(1.5°C warming)
Plaza de la Catedral of Havana (Jan 2014) by Gorupdebesanez under CC BY-SA 3.0
1.5°C3°C

These images show projected future sea levels at Plaza de la Catedral in Havana, Cuba 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.