**PICTURING OUR FUTURE | KEY CONCEPTS | METHODOLOGY** ## Today’s climate and energy choices shape tomorrow’s shorelines New Climate Central research shows that under the current emissions pathway leading toward 3°C global warming, about 50 major cities around the world will need to mount globally unprecedented defenses or lose most of their populated areas to unremitting sea level rise lasting hundreds of years but set in motion by pollution this century and earlier. We have the opportunity now to change this future. Meeting the most ambitious goals of the Paris Climate Agreement will likely reduce exposure by roughly half, allowing nations to avoid building untested defenses or abandoning many coastal megacities. **Related Resources** - Visualization Library - Maps - Summary Brief - Spanish Summary Brief - Scientific Paper - Media Alert Climate Central’s scientists examined where populations are most vulnerable within the next 200 to 2000 years and under different scenarios of warming.…