New York in 2080: 9 Degrees Warmer, 39 Inches of Sea Level Rise

The New York City Panel on Climate Change has released its latest report, and it's just the kind of reading to warm those frigid winter bones. By the 2080s there could be an 8.8-degree rise in temperature as well as six heat waves a year, sweltering conditions that scientists say will "increase the number of heat-related deaths that occur in Manhattan."

Compare those predictions to what's already occurred and it's easy to be worried. Mean temperatures in New York rose 3.4 degrees from 1900 to 2013, a slug's crawl compared to the rate of fossil-fueled scorching predicted for the rest of the century. There were an annual average of two heat waves in the 1980s; dealing with half-a-dozen every year sounds like hell.