SUNDAY REVIEW

Can You Guess What America Will Look Like in 10,000 Years? A Quiz

What would happen if the current growth trend in greenhouse gas emissions continues for the rest of this century before reversing? It’s a question worth pondering, especially with a president who has vowed to quit the Paris climate accord and is aggressively promoting the use of coal, gas and oil.

Our research with colleagues indicates that one consequence would be an unrelenting rise of the oceans for 10,000 years, ultimately reaching more than 170 feet above present levels, with half of that increase occurring in the next thousand years.

The map of the world would be redrawn. As Antarctica and Greenland lost nearly all of their ice, vast portions of the United States, some more than 100 miles inland, would be inundated.

We’re hopeful that the 2015 Paris climate deal will slow emissions, and there are signs that this is happening, though efforts to meet its goals are falling behind. Even if the world’s nations manage to limit warming to near 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — the accord’s main target — seas will continue to rise by 80 feet over 10,000 years, according to our modeling.

We are at a historic moment, and we have the science to recognize it. Because climate-warming carbon dioxide persists in the atmosphere for thousands of years, how we deal with this problem today will have profound effects long after we are gone.

Try to figure out the states by the shapes of their remaining landforms if oceans were to rise by more than 170 feet.