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IMAGE: What Manhattan might look like if sea levels continue to rise.

vanityfair.com — Vanity Fair 2006 Year in Photos. The image reminds me of how New York was depicted in the film A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). There's also an picture of what Washington D.C. might look like if the Greenland ice sheet melted completely. Compelling stuff.

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  • Fejerro, on 10/12/2007, -7/+41Cool, if creepy, pictures. Some of these are NSFW.
    • Onychophora, on 10/12/2007, -4/+48Ditto: Slide show is NSFW. The link itself is work-safe.
    • Sphonix, on 10/12/2007, -4/+51Seems a little dramatic. More like: "What Manhatan might look like if sea levels rose 5 metres tomorrow".

      The next slide shot kinda shocked me, but in the whole thing there is some pretty interesting pictures.
    • OutThisLife, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3That's cool.
    • birkoph, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24If the terrorists don't' get you Mother Nature will.
    • RoshanK, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6I just hope this happens to Houston instead of New York. Just in case you're wondering, I'm still pissed at the fact that I had to move.
    • scyform, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Ahaha suckers....wait I live near the Outer Banks...
    • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -19/+14The Bush administration cronies can't figure out a way to make money off of spreading this fear, so you won't see any action taken.
    • elbeano, on 10/12/2007, -1/+44that damn global warming rose the water levels around angelina jolie's ass too!
    • N00F, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I'm not so sure about the effects here. Quite a while ago I had read an article (don't know where) that the added force of extra water, due to global melting, would push down on the earth's crust causing a displacement that would compensate for the added amount of liquid water. The result being that the dry land masses wouldn't be as affected as people would expect.

      Well, whatever the outcome, I'm sure we'll all find out the results in the times to come.

      Good luck and good night!
    • compaqnigg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17Traffic is horrible in NYC... this would help... take a boat to work.

      Everybody's doin it!! Sea-doo!!
    • EsotericBoredom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Hey at least that $3000 per month walk in closet apartment now comes with a built in water slide!
    • undersky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6let me guess, Venice?
    • undersky, on 10/12/2007, -9/+101more accurate picture:
      what the earth looks like if the sea level continues to rise:
      http://www.rahoorkhuit.net/library/images/groups/gd/air.gif
    • Humptydank, on 10/12/2007, -1/+43There's only one important fact I can take away from this picture -- that I can see my apartment and it's still above the water line.

      Now if you'll excuse me, I have have some fossil fuels to burn.
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Woohoo!! now we have an answer to Italy's Venice!!

      ... but ours doesn't smell like sewage XD

      Gotta think positive, you know.
    • pipdip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9What's the big deal? I think it would be cool to row to work. ;)
    • naughtymonkey69, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4instead of pidgeons you'll have seals bobbing around in floating newspapers, or get attacked by a walrus while using swimmies to get to work
    • skyshock21, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Edit - n/m bury
    • dolemite5005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9At least we know a real life Waterworld could never possibly be as bad as the movie version was.
    • redguard, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1They left out the parts where there were dead bodies and fecal matter in the water. While it's won't become a toilet bowl like New Orleans did, there's still gonna be plenty of crap floating around.
    • xGORDOx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dude, the movie A.I. sucked, why post screen caps of it?
  • Tripacer99, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Wow, very scary.
  • saikhan, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16Save us Al Gore form these artist's renderings! Save us from our ignorance towards the effects of speculation!
    But seriously, global warming is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with seriously.
    • neave, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I agree -- climate change is very serious but this image mocks the issue. This isn't likely to happen, NYC would probably install a flood barrier to stop this happening, similar to the one used in London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Barrier
    • quickgold192, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11it also probably wouldn't happen because it would take thousands of years to reach this level, by which time we will either be extinct, be able to overcome it, or be in some planet of the apes state and not really care.
    • swany1012, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6@ quicken

      exactly, so why make such a big fuss over global warming right now?
    • po43292, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1something like a 2mm rise in sea level per year is significant, but over a very long term, assuming acceleration of this doesn't happen too quickly.
  • skippy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2006/12/yearinphotos_portfolio200612?slide=12

    What Washington, D.C. may look like if the Greenland ice sheet melted.
    From same set, slide 12 (previous slide).
    • Brainwave, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I think Washington would look trashed because angry protesters and rioters would be pissed at the government for letting that happen.
    • tgunner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I think it looks better.
    • dan8302, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4What it just looks like New Orleans... To soon?
    • DAaaMan64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wow that is beautiful...
  • jetsetgo, on 10/12/2007, -19/+1...because when ice in the ocean melts, sea levels with swell...just like melting ice in your glass causes your drink to overflow.

    Lets also forget that the North American continent is still rising after riding itself of the ice shelf that covered it at the end of the last ice age.
    • TGMD, on 10/12/2007, -10/+22Ahh you do realize that if you melt the ice floating in water it won't change the level of said water.

      It's basic science.

      The problem is that the Greenland ice caps don't float on water but are on land and therefore add to the mass.
    • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -20/+15TGMD,

      Wow, before quoting "basic science" you might actually want to learn something about what you are talking about, re: mass vs. volume. Total mass is conserved, BUT the volume of ice (re: frozen water) is greater than the volume of melted, liquid water. Water is one of the only substances that behaves that way - re: expands when frozen.

      So, sea levels would DROP if all of the world's frozen water was in the form of icebergs and then they melted.

      UNFORTUNATELY (as you correctly point out later), the vast amounts of frozen water are on land not in water. So, when they melt, they ADD net volume (and mass) to the world's oceans.
    • StarManta, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8In case it's not clear: It's like melting ice in the glass, except imagine several extra cubes stacked up above the glass's rim. Solid, they're no threat, but when they melt, it overflows.
    • Bedonder, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18excalpius

      Perhaps you should learn something about displacement.
      A floating object displaces a volume of water thats mass is equal to its own. Look up Archimedes' Principle I think you will find it under "basic science".
      The ice should not loose mass when it melts so it will fill the space exactly.
    • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7During warmer periods in our past, there were vast rain forests. Areas that are now desert were lush. Some scientists point out that if said ice were melt and the earth would warm, far more water vapor would end up in the atmosphere. The only assertion being believed is one that says that deserts will spread. Mind you the idea that we may have more lush land is no reason to go and fire up your 1950 V8 in an attempt to bring along such a consequence. However I find it troublesome that to put forward a good cause it has become fashionable to paint each and every possible consequence as dire. Lets try to stick to real science, not science put forth by Madison Avenue.
    • undersky, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@ excalpius

      bedoner was completely right. and more correctly, the volume of water is smallest at 4C, and it expands after that, until when it reaches 0C, its size fixes.

    • KidVicious, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Bedonder, mass =! volume. Solid water is more voluminous than the same mass of liquid water. Ever put a can of soda in the freezer?
    • SpacedCowboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@kidVicious:

      Indeed, Mass != Volume, which is why part of the ice is above the waterline... The exact *mass* of water is displaced, but the *volume* of the ice is too much to fit into the "hole" in the ocean occupied by the lower part of the ice, so part of the ice sticks out above the surface of the water - it "floats".

      When the ice melts, no mass is lost. As it melts, it shrinks in volume until all the ice is water. Eventually, all the water-that-was-ice can fit into the "hole" in the ocean that used to be where the ice was. All through this melting process, the water-level remains identical.

      It's easy to prove, just put an icecube into a glass, then fill it to the brim with water (so the ice-cube is floating above the top of the glass), and wait. No water will spill over.

      The ocean is not a contained-system like a soda can - not sure where you're going with that one, unless it's just to point out that the volume of a given mass of ice is larger than the same mass of water. That's sort of the point.

      Simon.
    • EochaidRiata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34You are missing the key difference: the ice is composed of fresh water and is floating in salt water.

      http://www.physorg.com/news5619.html

      "In a paper titled "The Melting of Floating Ice will Raise the Ocean Level" submitted to Geophysical Journal International, Noerdlinger demonstrates that melt water from sea ice and floating ice shelves could add 2.6% more water to the ocean than the water displaced by the ice, or the equivalent of approximately 4 centimeters (1.57 inches) of sea-level rise.

      The common misconception that floating ice won’t increase sea level when it melts occurs because the difference in density between fresh water and salt water is not taken into consideration. Archimedes’ Principle states that an object immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. However, Noerdlinger notes that because freshwater is not as dense as saltwater, freshwater actually has greater volume than an equivalent weight of saltwater. Thus, when freshwater ice melts in the ocean, it contributes a greater volume of melt water than it originally displaced.

      Noerdlinger's collaborator, Professor Kay R. Brower, of the New Mexico Institute of Technology, Socorro, validated the effect experimentally as seen in Figures 1 and 2. "
    • sidd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2@EochaidRiata:
      Thanks, I would digg that comment up twice if I could.
  • Naxr, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3I personally wouldn't mind if that happened to DC
  • tw0bit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12they'll make levees
    • Brainwave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Yeah, let's not learn a valuable lesson about levees.
    • KidVicious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7When The Levee Breaks...
    • JimV, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Netherlands?
    • Sippi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1New Orleans
    • mcduckov, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I drove my Chevy to a levee and the sucker was dry. Seems like a waste of money to me.
  • spookyttws, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Best Water Park EVER!
  • jmann, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Sucks to work on the ground floor.
  • ktonini, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3I guess i should cut back on the hairspray.
  • Admiral1701, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I like it, think Venice ;)
  • RobototoboR, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Venice, American style.
  • Switchnig, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2hooray! everyone is dead!
  • GoldenChild1, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2If this happens, have the terrorists won?
    • StarManta, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3If Bush wins, this happens....
    • Gizza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The goal of terrorism is to incite terror. The terrorists have already won, most of America just doesn't realise it yet.
    • zeero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1if by terrorists you mean the US government then you are correct.
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -2/+21Boy are Manhattan property values really going to skyrocket when everywhere becomes beachfront property! :)
  • CHalCogen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1They just say this is what it looks like if water levels continue to rise. They don't specify if this is from water that's actually available on earth. So, if a few ice asteroids hit earth, this is NYC. Really though, a picture of the ocean is any place on earth, if those water levels just keep on rising.
  • nubnub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Build up walls with windows.
  • bigrobert327, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I remember see that in Artificial Intelligence: AI
  • made2k, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6reminds me of that day after tomorrow movie.
    • spookyttws, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6You're being dugg down because that movie sucks, and you mentioned it. Doesn't matter if you liked it or not.
    • Brainwave, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4Yeah, that movie was a waste of existence.
  • adam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Hit next for a great picture!
  • RooDoG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Then they will have to rename the city to New Venice
  • patientXero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7How does this count as 2006 Year in Photos when it is a fake?
  • jumba911, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The bright side is we wont have to clean streets anymore.
  • actorboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Anyone else see that pic of Lindsay Lohan and think Alien Nation?
  • yensed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2We Need To Build A Levy!
  • tcomeau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The pictures of Keri Russell and the Governator are really well done.
  • Brainwave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Looks like the Big Apple's gonna get a little soggy.
  • leonwehttam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Angelina Jolie. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

    better pic :D
  • theJRK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Geez. What's next? Images from Armageddon depicting what NYC might look like if hit by hundreds of tiny asteroids? You know what would really make the sea levels rise? Dropping a whole bunch of *****-science in it. Worry about something else, folks. And find better illustrations for your neuroses.
  • Pic0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"might" look like? what does that mean?
    • KidVicious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Lol it means that they didn't go into the future to find out what it really looks like, so they guess.
  • thewump, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17That's a good photoshop.. Here's one I created if things are slightly worse:

    http://www.math.toronto.edu/jjchew/images/wallpaper/sun-on-horizon.jpg
  • ashwinashwin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0scary picture... but its impossible. even the disaster scenario illustrated in an inconvenient truth didn't show anything as bad as this.
  • nypix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I don't know about sea levels, but the next picture caused a rise.
  • Holosiren, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Crazy fear-mongerers. If Global Warming is a scientific issue, then why do its primary supporters employ this speculative nonsense? In what time frame will New York look like this? How many feet would the ocean need to rise?

    Unless someone's willing to give facts about this photo, it's just hysteria. Take your propaganda elsewhere. Global warming pundits are the modern Lisbon earthquake prophets. They paint pictures of future disaster but never pony up on the statistics and science.

    "Day after Tomorrow" indeed.
    • gwolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You sound worried.

      Me thinks the doth protest too much.
    • korteenea, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Actually, I think if you went to look up some of those statistics and evidence instead of waiting for Digg to deliver it to via a Vanity Fair slideshow, you might, oh I dunno... actually find it.
  • darkmule, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Pretty awesome, though it would be nice to get a GIS image of it, to see the actual impact from a 2d perspective. Rising sea level is something we have to seriously take a look at, not just in the US but around the world, yet its commonly ignored. I did a project this past year for "GIS Day" (aka map-making-nerd-fest), it had to do basically with the impact of a sea level rise focused on the core part of our infrastructure, which is basically the airport, and the 'main road'. The airport was pretty much screwed, and so was the main road, that was just a 1 meter sea level rise.. *shrugs*. Awesome picture none the less! :)
  • bakechristine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0That's an amazing photo and a very scary thought.
  • marinist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3They should have mentioned how much sea level rise is required for that view of Manhattan.
    Otherwise, it could easily be dismissed as sensationalism.
    Here's a Google Maps hack that depicts different sea level effects on coastlines.
    http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=40.7077,-74.0527&z=6
    • zyzzyvette, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For some reason even an increase of 14m doesn't touch my hometown... even though I live right on the coast of an island. Does this hacked version only work in certain places or what?
    • marinist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The maps use NASA topographical data, so perhaps it's incomplete.
      I've noticed the data for my coastal town is rough, but generally accurate.
  • tgunner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Oh man, I knew my house-boat dealership would be a good investment!
  • papavb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1seems like that trip to venice just got a lot cheaper, thanks al gore
  • volta314, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does anyone know what the world map would actually look like if all the ice on earth were to melt? I assumed somebody has looked into this but couldn't find a good website.
  • Dunmander, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The real question is....

    Can Kevin Costner save us with his evolved gills?
  • VeyronSengh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The Day After Tomorrow (2006)
  • philaiv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Someone should create a animated gif of the water rising.
  • CarolinaHeel23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2fear mongering...
  • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2006/12/yearinphotos_portfolio200612?slide=9
    Wow! Didnt know she had tattoos!
    • KillaGoat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I liked number 14 as well. Yowsa
    • vampiro852002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0With an ass like that, I don't think that I would care that she is insane.
  • kenvsryu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Makes me mad and sad. Where's grays papaya?
    • Leviathan777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26th ave & 8th, NE corner. But that's far from the best place for late nite drunk eating.

      Wait, that's what you were talking about, right?
  • Cleisthenis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Even if all the polar ice were to melt, I don't think that the level is predicted to rise quite that much. I think 10 - 30 feet would barely cover the street surface in the centre of Manhatten, let alone scale up 15 to 20 stories of some of new york's skyscrapers. Good reflection and colour work in the foreground, terrible job scaling the water level out to central park and beyond though....
    • gwolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think the expanded volume of the warmer water is something you should consider.
  • DeFex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1When the Ice on the land melts the land also rises as the weight is reduced. this also displaces some water.
  • baudbwoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Double good news, me and my girlfriend both work in the same building, the good news in this scenario. 1 - my office is still well above water. 2 - I'm now single.
  • RatTrap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Can't wait.
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