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

If we allow unchecked carbon pollution
(4°C global warming)

(4°C warming)

Image Landsat / Copernicus Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO

If we sharply cut carbon pollution
(1.5°C global warming)

(1.5°C warming)

Image Landsat / Copernicus Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO

These images show projected future sea levels at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, United States 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.