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By Aleks Phillips
U.S. News Reporter
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Areas of populous cities along California's stretch of the Pacific Ocean could be flooded or entirely consumed by water if, due to the effects of climate change, sea levels rise as predicted, modeling suggests.
By the year 2100, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated, there could be between 43 and 84 centimeters (1.4 and 2.8 feet) of sea level rise, and an increase of two meters (6.6 feet) "cannot be ruled out."
According to projections by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a sea level rise of about 3 feet would still see high-population areas along California's coastline suffer.
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San Francisco International Airport would become entirely submerged, as would the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve near Union City. Water would also reach the outskirts of Newark and flood several blocks of Mountain View and Sunnyvale.
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Flooding would also reach Napa and Petaluma, while the town center of Corte Madera near San Quentin would become submerged.
In the south of the state, the Naples, Belmont Shore, Edison Park and Balboa Island neighborhoods would be reclaimed by the ocean, while Newport Beach would see flooding.
Under 6 feet of sea level rise, Huntington Beach would become a peninsula, while the naval air station at Point Mugu, near Oxnard, and the construction base at Port Hueneme would be subsumed by water.
Parts of central Santa Barbara would be flooded, as would most areas around the San Francisco Bay. In the north, new ocean would reach Fairfield, while San Rafael would see significant flooding.
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In Oakland, the monument in Jack London Square would be subsumed, as would many coastal neighborhoods in the city.
David Thornalley, a professor of ocean and climate science at University College London, previously told Newsweek that due to melting ice sheets, beyond 2100—which is only a single lifespan away—greater sea level rises with far more severe effects were being predicted to occur in the coming hundreds to thousands of years.
He said the most vulnerable ice sheets were those in the Antarctic that are marine-based—that is, the bottom of the ice sheet sits on land that is below sea level.
Antarctica's ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by more than 190 feet. One 2022 paper estimated that its ice sheet would collapse in about 2,000 years, though this could happen in as little as 500 years or as far away as 13,000 years.
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The concurrent melting of Greenland's ice sheets could raise sea levels by 23 feet.
If all the world's ice sheets melted, sea levels are predicted to rise by 216 feet. Under this scenario, the Pacific Coast would fare better than the Atlantic because of the nature of the terrain, but it would still suffer as a result.
Analysis by National Geographic in 2013 suggested that while a significant chunk of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts would disappear under water, including the entirety of Florida, San Francisco's hills would become islands, while the Central Valley would become a new, large bay.
Large portions of Los Angeles and San Diego would also vanish, while the Gulf of California would approach the Joshua Tree National Park.
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