A striking image of a half-submerged Statue of Liberty filled the cover of the September issue of National Geographic magazine in 2013, touting its lead story: “Rising Seas—how they are changing our coastlines.” Any curious reader could have consulted the record of the tide gauge at The Battery at the tip of Manhattan (less than two miles from the statue) and seen that sea level there has been rising at an average rate of about 30 cm (1 foot) per century since 1855.1
