+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

sea levels

Science

What will Earth look like if all its land ice melts? Here's your answer.

Climate change isn't pretty.

via Business Insider Science/YouTube.

A map of the United States post land-ice melt.


Land ice: We got a lot of it.

Considering the two largest ice sheets on earth — the one on Antarctica and the one on Greenland — extend more than 6 million square miles combined ... yeah, we're talkin' a lot of ice.

But what if it was all just ... gone? Not like gone gone, but melted?

If all of earth's land ice melted, it would be nothing short of disastrous.

And that's putting it lightly.

This video by Business Insider Science (seen below) depicts exactly what our coastlines would look like if all the land ice melted. And spoiler alert: It isn't great.

Lots of European cities like, Brussels and Venice, would be basically underwater.

In Africa and the Middle East? Dakar, Accra, Jeddah — gone.

Millions of people in Asia, in cities like Mumbai, Beijing, and Tokyo, would be uprooted and have to move inland.

South America would say goodbye to cities like Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.

And in the U.S., we'd watch places like Houston, San Francisco, and New York City — not to mention the entire state of Florida — slowly disappear into the sea.

All GIFs via Business Insider Science/YouTube.

Business Insider based these visuals off National Geographic's estimation that sea levels will rise 216 feet (!) if all of earth's land ice melted into our oceans.

There's even a tool where you can take a detailed look at how your community could be affected by rising seas, for better or worse.

Although ... looking at these maps, it's hard to imagine "for better" is a likely outcome for many of us.

Much of America's most populated regions would be severely affected by rising sea levels, as you'll notice exploring the map, created by Alex Tingle using data provided by NASA.

Take, for instance, the West Coast. (Goodbye, San Fran!)

Or the East Coast. (See ya, Philly!)

And the Gulf Coast. (RIP, Bourbon Street!)

I bring up the topic not just for funsies, of course, but because the maps above are real possibilities.

How? Climate change.

As we continue to burn fossil fuels for energy and emit carbon into our atmosphere, the planet gets warmer and warmer. And that, ladies and gentlemen, means melted ice.

A study published this past September by researchers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany found that if we don't change our ways, there's definitely enough fossil fuel resources available for us to completely melt the Antarctic ice sheet.

Basically, the self-inflicted disaster you see above is certainly within the realm of possibility.

"This would not happen overnight, but the mind-boggling point is that our actions today are changing the face of planet Earth as we know it and will continue to do so for tens of thousands of years to come," said lead author of the study Ricarda Winkelmann, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

If we want to stop this from happening," she says, "we need to keep coal, gas, and oil in the ground."

The good news? Most of our coastlines are still intact! And they can stay that way, too — if we act now.

World leaders are finallystarting to treat climate change like the global crisis that it is — and you can help get the point across to them, too.

Check out Business Insider's video below:

This article originally appeared on 12.08.15

From Your Site Articles
climate change
Heroes

5 things happening now that should give you hope about climate change.

Finally, the world is stepping up its game against global warming.

True
League of Conservation Voters

Admit it — talking about climate change can be super depressing.

Sea levels could rise to terrifying levels, droughts are getting worse, storms are getting more severe, and ... this one's tough ... even beer is being ruined.

But don't let all the doom and gloom rain on your parade. Because although, yes, we certainly need to continue acting on climate change (like, yesterday), the world has taken many encouraging, consequential steps forward as of late. And you have every right to feel good about that.

Here are five reasons to feel hopeful in the fight to keep global temperatures down.

1. Carbon emissions are expected to stall — or even fall — this year.

Yeah, you read correctly — decline.

Photo via iStock.

New data presented at the UN climate talks in Paris earlier this month suggests global carbon emissions will have dropped 0.6% in 2015.

Even though that figure might sound measly (no one's saying we don't have our work cut out for us), this is pretty big. It marks the very first time carbon emissions have dropped during a year of global economic growth.

What have we been doing differently lately? Well, the world is using more renewable energy, the data found, and China — one of global warming's worst offenders — is slowly kicking its dirty coal habit to the curb, which helped a lot.

2. More and more people around the world are taking climate change seriously.

Photo via iStock.

Just last month, Pew Research Center found that in all 40 countries where it polled respondents, majorities agreed that climate change is a "serious problem."

What's more, a median of 78% of global respondents were in favor of their country agreeing to limit greenhouse gas emissions to halt rising temperatures.

It's OK to celebrate these numbers because, naturally, the more people believe in the science behind climate change, the harder they'll fight to do something about it.

And that leads me to #3:

3. The biggest carbon-emitting culprits just united in Paris to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN hosted the largest-ever gathering of heads of state this month in France at COP21— a summit focused on setting ambitious global goals to drastically reduce our collective carbon footprint.

Photo via iStock.

Yes, plenty of international climate conferences have happened before, and many have failed on reaching their prospective benchmarks. But this time looks especially promising, seeing as 195 nations around the world committed to dramatically reducing their carbon footprints.

"The Paris agreement establishes the enduring framework the world needs to solve the climate crisis," President Obama said of the agreement. "It creates the mechanism, the architecture, for us to continually tackle this problem in an effective way."

But it's not just politicians (finally) trying to pull their weight against global warming...

4. Big names with deep pockets are stepping up to share the burden of a warming planet.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a UN Messenger of Peace on the climate, was also in France for COP21, encouraging about 1,000 mayors and leaders from around the world to go big on renewable energy.


“Model cities like Vancouver, Sydney, Stockholm and Las Vegas have already committed to using 100% renewable energy in the coming decades," he said in a speech. “So to all the mayors and governors in this room today, I implore you to join with your peers to commit to moving to no less than 100% renewable energy as soon as possible. Do not wait another day.”

And billionaire philanthropist and cool dude Bill Gates? He announced a massive carbon-fighting initiative that will use both billions of dollars from private investors (like Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg) as well as clean energy commitments from several countries to help prevent catastrophically high global temperatures.


"It is great to see so many government leaders and investors making these commitments and showing how the public and private sectors can come together to work on big problems," Gates wrote on his blog.

"I am optimistic that we can invent the tools we need to generate clean, affordable, reliable energy that will help the poorest improve their lives and also stop climate change."

5. The worst of climate change is still avoidable! And the urgency we've seen to act is a positive sign.

Yes, rising temperatures will continue to affect our planet in big, costly ways. But, if ambitious goals are met, we will have a green future ahead of us.

"I believe this moment can be a turning point for the world," Obama said, praising the new climate agreement as "the best chance we have to save the one planet that we've got."

See? There's no need to feel demoralized. However, there still is a need to act. Demand the U.S. step up its clean energy game by signing this petition by the League of Conservation Voters.

Heroes

Parisians hug, touch, and cuddle with these giant blocks of ice — just like the artist wanted.

"Art has the ability to change our perceptions and perspectives on the world."

True
Natural Resources Defense Council

Global leaders are now meeting in France for the COP21 climate change conference. The meeting is being held in Le Bourget, a suburb of Paris. Although, really, maybe it would be more appropriate to hold it on a melting iceberg, considering what they're discussing.

One artist, however, figured that if the leaders weren't going to go to Greenland, he'd just have to bring Greenland to them.

Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist, teamed up with Minik Rosing, a Danish geology professor and arctic researcher, to wrangle 12 mini-icebergs all the way from Nuuk, Greenland, to Paris' Latin Quarter, placing them on the world leaders' proverbial doorstep.

"Ice Watch: Paris" is what he's calling it.

The blocks were placed in a circle in the Place du Panthéon, a famous square outside of a mausoleum for French heroes and icons.



Not everyone gets to live in places with glaciers. Many people may have only ever seen glaciers on television. By giving people the chance to actually go see, taste, and touch a part of one, Eliasson hopes he can make their disappearance feel more visceral and real.

“As an artist I hope my works touch people, which in turn can make something that may have previously seemed quite abstract into reality. Art has the ability to change our perceptions and perspectives on the world and Ice Watch makes the climate challenges we are facing tangible. I hope it will inspire shared commitment to taking climate action." — Olafur Eliasson, IceWatchParis.com

The 12 mini-bergs were originally pieces of glacier that had fallen into the sea, where Eliasson and Rosing lassoed them up. A cargo ship then took them to Denmark in refrigerated containers, where they were loaded onto trucks for Paris.

At the time of capture, their combined weight was 100 metric tons (80 now that they've slimmed down during their trip). If that sounds like a lot, you should know it's minuscule compared to the 200 billion metric tons of glacial ice Greenland loses each year.

Greenland loses 1,000 blocks just like these per second.

And it's these glacial bergs that a lot of people are watching out for. Glaciers trap water up on land, away from the ocean. This keeps sea levels down. But when the glaciers break apart and do fall into the sea, well, it's like dumping ice cubes into a full glass of water. Things are going to overflow.

If this seems vaguely familiar, it's because this isn't the first time Eliasson has used ice to make a statement. He set up another Ice Watch installation in Copenhagen a few months ago.

Watch this video to see Eliasson and Rosing's team wrangling wild icebergs off the coast of Greenland.

Video from Bloomberg Philanthropies/YouTube.

Not everyone will get a chance to see "Ice Watch: Paris" before the blocks melt, but if you're serious about saving our glaciers, sign this petition from the NRDC to demand climate action from our world leaders. They'll present it at the Paris climate talks!

Trending Stories