Vancouver Archipelago

Perched at the western edge of the Fraser Sea, the Vancouver Archipelago holds what remains of a great western city.

This map has been updated!

This is the fifth in a series of extreme sea level rise maps. The other four so far are Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, and San Diego.See the original–Burrito Justice’s map of San Francisco.

This will happen someday, but not in our lifetimes. Some who have dared to speculate on a timeline have given themselves plenty of space for error in their predictions–one estimate says anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 years. Whatever the time frame, anthropogenic climate change is a fact–humans are speeding up this process.

I am not portraying any sea level higher than what is possible.  The IPCC has estimated that the total rise would be about 66 meters.

This Post Has 12 Comments

  5. Tom December 7, 2014

    Does this map, and the others, take into account the rising and subsiding land masses due to techtonic movement of the earths plates. I have been told that parts of Vancouver Island are rising at the same rate as the sea level is rising, yet only a few hundred kilometers away, areas in the Fraser Valley are subsiding and compounding the challenges of sea level rise.

    1. Jeffrey December 7, 2014

      Tom, these maps are based on sea level only, and don’t take into account any tectonic forces, erosion, or human engineering.

  6. sorrykb December 9, 2014

    On the plus side… Kayak tours of the Firth of Dunbar!
    But beware the Strathcona Abyss. Here be dragons.

  7. charlie bone January 8, 2015

    Lulu Bay! Love it. Awash in synthetic leggings with a half-life of 10k years. Orcas gagging on yoga mats and harbour seals frolicking amidst floating yoga props. Don’t forget, even with radical sea rise to “do something scary every day!”

    1. Jonathan February 20, 2015

      Lulu Bay on this map is probably named for the area it occupies, formerly where the Lulu Island in the Fraser River would have been.

      It’s probably not named for the stretchy pants company from Kits (who, more or less, was named such because of Lulu Island…).

      1. Andy October 14, 2015

        It was a good reply though

      2. petr March 3, 2016

        and Lulu Island was named after a dance hall girl. The girlfriend of Amor Di Cosmos (The lover of the Universe) the first Premier of BC.

  8. Life February 12, 2015

    These maps are flawed in one very real way, making it impossible they would ever be accurate. If all of the ice sheets melted the temperature on earth would quite literally kill all plant and animal life on the surface and the earth would see its water evaporate into space, until there was none left. It’s happened before, to the oceans on Mars.

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