Visualizing Worst-Case Scenario Sea Level Rise on the Texas Coast

Much of the state political leadership in Texas has been slow to accept the existence of climate change, much less the role of the state's economy, land use, and infrastructure planning in exacerbating the crisis. Maybe this will help wake them up?

1 minute read

June 7, 2019, 9:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Gulf Coast

Roschetzky Photography / Shutterstock

Fares Sabawi deployed Climate Central's Google Earth plug-in map to visualize the effect of sea-level rise on the Texas coast, and found bad news for Corpus Christi.

Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the Google Earth visualization shows vast portions of Corpus Christi under water at the worst-case scenario of eight feet of sea level rise by 2100. 

"In Corpus Christi, much of downtown and North Beach would be submerged, according to the data. Landmarks like the Selena Memorial Statue, Heritage Park and the Texas State Aquarium would essentially be underwater," according to Sabawi.

A slideshow preceding the article, showing similarly catastrophic effects for other coastal cities in Texas, is the star of the post.

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