The bad surprises of global warming

Okay, so the COP18 climate change conference is an utter failure. That much we all know, right? Right.

So now everybody who is not a first world country is wondering “now what”. Seas rising is what, and I’m surprised at some of the places that will suffer because of it.

Thanks to a nifty toy over at firetree.net, we can see Tijuana would look like this:

Tijuana loses a bit of beach at the most, looks like. Perhaps the waves will actually hit the butte that rises up a few meters and upon which el malecon is built on, but no more than that.

“But Tijuana is right next to San Diego, and obviously it’ll lose land to the ocean” you say. But what about Mexicali, which is farther inland? Wikipedia says it sits about 8 meters above current sea level.

Mexicali loses almost all of the northwest zone of the city. Calexico is almost gone. El Centro probably is gone, as it sits 2 meters above current sea level. This is just a 1 meter rise of the sea level, which is what is expected to happen within the next century or so.

Keep in mind this is all projected weather and oceanic data, not what’s going to happen, but it most certainly helps drive home what could happen with sustained climate change.

Just for kicks, go take a look at what it would look like with a 20 meter rise.