Global warming: not about polar bears

The new image of global warming is the polar bear, swimming among chunks of melting ice, hopelessly looking for whatever it is polar bears eat. I’ve seen it on 60 Minutes, the cover of Time, and countless other places. You’d think that the only effect global warming has had on the planet so far is to make polar bears even hungrier than they were before.

As an image, it’s not very good at changing my behavior, or stirring me to action. Don’t get me wrong. I like polar bears. I want to see them survive. I especially like seeing them play with giant beach balls at the St. Louis Zoo. But when it comes down to it, I don’t really care about polar bears enough.

Far more effective, would be to show me my house underwater. That’s what I see in these detailed maps generated by the University of Arizona Department of Geosciences Environmental Studies Labratory, which depict what world coastlines will look like after the seas swallow up a few million acres of land (areas in red are underwater, white are high population density). They’re even interactive and animated. Will anyone still be crying over polar bears when a billion people are forced to relocate because their homes are now 3 feet under water?