What Venice Beach Could Look Like As Sea Levels Rise

Sure, we've all heard about rising ocean tides caused by climate change. But actually visualizing what an iconic but vulnerable place like Venice Beach might look like when the sea rises really drives the point home.

Non-profit group Climate Central released photorealistic images created by Nickolay Lamm of what the beachside hood will look like if sea levels rise 5, 12 or 25 feet. (You can check out what other coastal cities look like here.)

With a 25-foot sea level rise, the photos show that Venice Boardwalk and hotspots like Abbot Kinney Boulevard would be completely submerged under water. If the oceans rise even 12 feet, the buildings lining the Venice Boardwalk would be covered in water that looks about waist-high. That number is important because it comes on the heels of reports of major Antarctic glaciers collapsing. The melting West Antarctic Ice Sheet has enough ice to add 10 to 13 feet of sea level rise globally—and it can't be reversed, according to two new studies. We probably won't be around here for the big meltdown, which will happen sometime between 200 and 1,000 years from now.

In 2012, the nonprofit released maps showing that Los Angeles would most likely be flooded in low-lying areas like the San Pedro and Long Beach ports and surrounding areas of Marina Del Rey. Climate Central also said that since the beginning of the 20th century, the world's oceans have already risen by 7.5 inches.

[h/t LA Observed]