Which Future Will We Choose?

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

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

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RUS__0__Saint_Petersburg__State_Hermitage_Museum__L13__3p0C__photorealistic.jpg
If we keep our current carbon path
(3°C global warming)
(3°C warming)
Derivative of Hermitage Museum by Night by kuhnmi under CC BY 2.0
RUS__0__Saint_Petersburg__State_Hermitage_Museum__L13__1p5C__photorealistic.jpg
If we sharply cut carbon pollution
(1.5°C global warming)
(1.5°C warming)
Hermitage Museum by Night by kuhnmi under CC BY 2.0
1.5°C3°C

These images show projected future sea levels at State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia 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.