June 5th is World Environment Day. As always, the focus is on the impact of global warming and its fallout on our shorelines. World Under Water is a Google Street View powered simulation that hopes to bring the message closer to home. No -- it's not cataclysmic yet, but the simulation of what your town or city could like when water breaks through is close enough.

World Under Water is a collaboration of two marketing agencies, BBDO and Proximity Singapore along with climate change-centric crowdfunding platform CarbonStory. The dramatic Google Street View mod shows how our cities will look like when seawater breaks through and inundates urban areas. The mod highlights some of the famous landmarks around the world like Arc de Triomphe in Paris or 5th Avenue in New York. You can also type in your location and see any famous landmark of your city symbolizing the floods.

Google Street View Simulation

The imagery may not be completely accurate because it is a simple superimposition of flood waters on an image taken from Google Street View. A location's height from sea level isn't taken into consideration. If you want to see accurate predictions of flood levels, check out the flood.firetree.net tool.

Flood-Firetree

But the message of World Under Water is honest. Some of the facts put forward as part of the story are shocking. For instance -- 13 of the 14 warmest years on record have already occurred this century.

The second part of the message urges everyone to take small actions. Calculate your emissions, offset your carbon footprint, and support a green project. It is a social and global plea. Head over to your browser and try it out. If things go from bad to worse, it won't remain a simulation anymore.

Source: 9To5 Google