Disturbing before-and-after images show what major US cities could look like in the year 2100

The world's oceans levels are rising at faster and faster rates as waters warm and ice sheets melt.

Researchers, led by University of Colorado-Boulder professor Steve Nerem, looked at satellite data dating back to 1993 to track the rise of sea levels.

Their findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that sea levels aren't just rising — that rise has been accelerating over the last 25 years.

Even small increases can have devastating consequences, according to climate experts. If the worst climate-change predictions come true, coastal cities in the US will be devastated by flooding and greater exposure to storm surges by the year 2100.

Research group Climate Central has created a plug-in for Google Earth that illustrates how catastrophic an "extreme" sea-level rise scenario would be if the flooding happened today, based on projections in a 2017 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

You can install the plug-in (directions here) and see what might become of major US cities.

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In a worst case scenario, flooding caused by polar melting and ice-sheet collapses could cause a sea level rise of 10 to 12 feet by 2100, NOAA reported in January 2017.

Here's Washington, DC today. The famed Potomac River runs through it.

And here's what Washington, DC, might look like in the year 2100 — as seen on Climate Central's plug-in for Google Earth. Ocean water causes the river to overflow.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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