New Climate Central tool shows what Boston could look like as sea levels rise

A scary look into the future, according to a new report. A new tool was just released by Climate Central that gives us an idea what our future in Boston could look like if we continue to release carbon emissions at our current rising rate.

Carbon emissions are on the rise due to pollution caused by humans. This is leading to a rise in temperatures, which creates more extreme weather events and a rising sea level. If we let things continue to go down the path we are taking, Boston Common runs the risk of being underwater due to rising sea level.

Regardless to any changes we make going forward, we are set to face a 1.1°C rise in temperatures thanks to past carbon pollution. If we don’t take action to try and curb carbon emissions, a 4°C rise in temperatures would lead to Boston Common being underwater.

This doesn’t even take into account the rise in water we see from daily high tides, which can be even worse when a storm moves through. Video from a few years ago shows water rushing into a T stop from a storm back in January 2018. Something like that threatens to be more common.

So what would Boston look like during high tides? One map shows what would happen during a high tide if the temperature rises 2°F; the Back Bay and Cambridge are completely underwater. It gets worse if the temperature rises by 7°F; during high tides most of the Boston area would be underwater. The information released from climate central doesn’t have a firm estimate on when this could happen. It could happen over the next few decades or maybe even hundreds of years from now.

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