Global warming is all the rage these days, and with 2012 right around the corner, more and more people are talking about the Great Flood. When most people think about the Great Flood, their minds manufacture images of Noah’s Ark, the Hindu story of Manu, or the harrowing Epic of Gilgamesh. Yes, the Great Flood myth is widespread among many cultures and is mostly about a huge flood that comes and destroys civilization. If a massive flood were to occur, what would it look like, and what cities and countries would be the first to “drown?”

Pleasant thoughts, ay? For your demented viewing pleasure, here are a collection of images that depict a modern Great Flood. There’s even a world map that shows what regions the water would fill.

If this happens maybe we’ll manage to live under the water. The statues that that call the famed underwater museum their home are able to cope with it quite handily. I don’t know; maybe life underwater wouldn’t be so bad. The crab Sebastian in The Little Mermaid seemed to enjoy it. He got on all fours and went into a song about it in the 1989 flick.

 Maybe he had a point, ay? Should we rethink the whole premise of our existence? Maybe a great flood that knocks out half the cities in the world and forces us to build an underwater empire is actually desirable. Dolphins seem to live a carefree life of splendor. Bottom-feeders on the other hand–not so much.  Which kind of makes me wonder what sort of drugs the Sebastain crab was on when he sang that song. “Nobody beat us?”  Um, actually, you get killed and eaten quite often.

But, obviously, humans wouldn’t be bottom-feeders if we lived under the sea. No, no. We would dominate. Maybe we should brace for a world where the fiction of an underwater society becomes a reality.