Despite the hysteria over rising sea levels, allegedly caused by anthropogenic global warming, a comparison of satellite imagery of some of Maine’s most iconic coastal communities shows virtually no change in the coastline.
The lack of sea level rise, however, hasn’t stopped the flood of apocalyptic predictions. The most recent comes from Newsweek this Sunday, a hyperventilating story based on predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
According to those predictions, New England can expect an increase in sea levels of between 10 to 12 inches over the next five decades.
Newsweek somberly conveys this news with the headline, “Map Shows US Cities That Could Be Underwater in 2050.”
“Could” is doing a lot of work here.
Even if you take NOAA’s “Sea Level Rise Viewer” tool at face value, a hypothetical 12″ increase in the sea level would be… kind of insignificant.
Here’s what NOAA’s Sea Level Rise Viewer shows for the city of Portland at current average sea levels:
Now (trigger warning!), here’s what NOAA thinks a 12″ increase in sea level would look like.
The thin light-blue areas you can see if you zoom in and squint a little are the coastal places that would be newly submerged after a fifty-year-long 12 inch increase in sea levels, while the green areas are places not connected to the ocean that could also flood.
If you’re having trouble telling the difference between the maps, that’s not your vision.
That’s because NOAA’s own tools show very little difference between current sea levels and a hypothetical 12″ increase.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, because if you look at historical Google Earth satellite imagery, Maine’s coastline has remained virtually unchanged since we developed the ability to take pictures from space.
Here’s Portland in 1984 via Google Earth’s historical imagery versus Portland in 2024:
Here’s Mount Desert Island in 1984 versus 2024:
Here’s Eastport 1984 versus 2024:
I’m not a scientist, but it would appear to me that the only differences in these photographs of Maine’s coastline over the last forty years is the quality of the satellite imagery.
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