A published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that in order to lessen the rise of sea level that threatens some American cities, steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions should be observed.
If changes will not be made and greenhouse emissions would still be the same as usual, a rise of 14 to 33 feet sea level would submerge land that is currently resided by almost 20 to 31 million American populations, and this phenomenon would include more than 20 American cities with populations more than 100,000 thousand.
Mashable, for example, cited New York City as one of the would be victims of the rise of sea level due to high gas emissions. And if cuts in gas emissions would be observed, New York, which ranks number one in terms of population size, could avoid submergence, "with at least 1.6 million people avoiding a watery future if major emissions cuts are achieved in the near future." Other cities highlighted which could be saved from being submerged in the near future are the cities of Jacksonville, Virginia Beach, Sacramento and Miami.
A team from Climate Central of New Jersey and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany emphasized the importance of steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. In an email of Ben Strauss to mashable, the lead author of the study stated that;
"If we don't cut carbon emissions very sharply and quickly, we could effectively be sacrificing a whole U.S. state. We could lock in enough sea level rise to lose land home to more Americans than live in any state except California."
Under a low emission scenario, if guidelines would be followed, an estimate of sea-level rise would be around "7.9 feet, or 2.4 meters, to 23 feet, or 7.1 meters, by the end of the century." Though the rise of sea level is yet to be realized when humanity reaches the year 2100, still it would be good to note that when that time comes, not only much of our real estate property would be underwater, but most especially our cultural land and historic places would be under swamps.
