Major Cities Like NYC and Oakland Will Face Massive Flooding if We Don’t Act

“We have time to respond. We must use it wisely.”

51Systems/Getty Images

The threat of sea level rise because of climate change could obliterate many coastal communities in the coming decades. Given the anti-science predisposition of the current administration, a new report shows just how bad it could get if the U.S. doesn’t take action.

“The final result, late this century and beyond, may be neighborhoods under water,” researchers from the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in their new report, “When Rising Seas Hit Home.” 

After analyzing flood data and interviewing community experts, researchers found that in some scenarios, almost 670 coastal communities will face problems of chronic inundation by the end of century.  That means that by 2100, tidal flooding over 10 percent or more of useable land would occur, on average, twice a month, involving 60 percent of communities on the East and Gulf Coast and a smaller number on the West Coast. By 2100, if the worst predictions come true, President Donald Trump’s favorite estate and beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, will be completely submerged.

By the end of the century, 489 communities face chronic inundation in the intermediate scenario (yellow). In the high scenario, an additional 179 communities (pink)—for a total of 668—are also chronically inundated.

Union of Concerned Scientists

More than 50 cities with a high population, including Boston, Oakland, Fort Lauderdale, and four of the boroughs of New York City will also experience chronic inundation. 

By the end of the century, 29 communities (US Census Bureau county subdivisions) with populations above 100,000 face chronic inundation with the intermediate scenario (yellow). With the high scenario, an additional 23 (pink)—for a total of 52—are also chronically inundated.

Union of Concerned Scientists

But Americans don’t have to wait until the end of the century to see the impacts of sea level rise absent any action. According to the report, by 2035 with just moderate sea level rise, nearly 170 coastal communities will be chronically inundated. The majority of these communities will be in Maryland and Louisiana, and more than half of those communities are home to lower-income neighborhoods. 

Nearly 170 coastal communities, many clustered in the East and Gulf Coasts’ lowest-lying regions, face chronic inundation within the next 20 years in the intermediate scenario .

Union of Concerned Scientists

“Low-income communities face significant social and economic challenges that put them at a disadvantage when faced with natural disasters,” researchers said. This is reflected in the story of Fouche Shepard, a resident of Charleston, South Carolina who is featured in the report. She was fired after she couldn’t get to her job because of flooding. “How many people are going to lose their jobs when they can’t get to work because their car has been destroyed by flooding?” Shepard asked. 

According to researchers, the U.S. can avoid catastrophic rising sea levels by limiting development in known flood areas, updating flood-risk maps so projected sea level rise is included, and building well-funded programs for communities that are forced to relocate. 

“We are at a turning point where we can still avoid some of the most serious human consequences and losses that our coasts face this century,” researchers wrote. “We have time to respond. We must use it wisely.”

Read the full report here

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate