According to National Geographic (USA), if fossil fuel burning and carbon emissions continue, climate change will eventually lead to melting ice at the poles and in the mountains. This will lead to a global sea level rise of about 68.9m, submerging coastal cities in water tanks.
Business Insider has created a map illustrating what the world will look like when the world’s ice melts. Accordingly, the prospect of the whole world being submerged in water may not happen but only certain areas, especially low-lying and coastal areas.
According to scientists, by the end of this century, there are many parts of the Earth where humans will no longer be able to live there. Disasters caused by climate change will include widespread famines, droughts, severe floods, epidemics, polluted oceans, and record-breaking heat waves.
Researcher David Wallace-Wells predicts these disasters will increase the likelihood of outbreaks of war and prolonged financial crises.
The accelerating rate of thaw is raising sea levels and changing coastal topography. Miami and the entire East Coast of North America would be underwater if the ice melted. (Photo: National Geographic).
Europe will have to say goodbye to London, Venice and the whole of the Netherlands. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).
Seawater would engulf the whole of Bangladesh, home to more than 160 million people, and Kolkata, a population of 4.6 million. Water from the Mekong River basin will flood all countries in this region, turning the Cardamom Mountains into islands. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).
Australia will lose much of its coastal land, home to 80% of its inhabitants. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).
Shanghai will be swallowed up by the East China Sea. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).
In South America, the Amazon Basin and the Paraguay River Basin will disappear, the Argentine capital Buenos Aires and much of Paraguay will also be cancelled. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).
Africa will lose less land than other continents. However, extreme heat will make many parts of Europe so inhospitable that no one can live there. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).
Some scientists say, with more than 5 million cubic meters of ice on the whole Earth, it will take more than 5,000 years for all the ice at the poles to melt. In the next generation, however, some cities may cease to exist if countries do not reduce their carbon emissions. (Photo: Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider).