What will happen to the planet if all the ice melts on it?

If humanity continues to burn fossil fuels and emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, global warming will eventually melt all the ice on the poles and mountain peaks. There are now more than 5 million cubic miles of ice on the planet – and according to scientists, it will take more than 5,000 years to melt all these reserves. The average temperature, which is currently 14 degrees Celsius, will reach 26.6 degrees and the sea level will rise by 65 meters.

These maps show what the world would be like if all the ice on Earth melted and became part of the oceans. The current coastline is indicated by a thin white line.

North America

The entire Atlantic coast will disappear, along with Florida and the Gulf Coast. The hills of San Francisco will become a cluster of islands, and the Central Valley will become a huge bay. The Gulf of California will continue north and swallow San Diego.

South America

The Amazon Basin in the north and the Paraguay River Basin in the south will become inlets in the Atlantic Ocean, Buenos Aires, coastal Uruguay and most of Paraguay will disappear. There will be mountainous areas along the Caribbean coast and in Central America.

Africa

Compared to other continents, Africa will lose less land, but warmer temperatures could make much of it uninhabitable. In Egypt Alexandria and Cairo will be flooded by the spilled Mediterranean Sea.

Europe

Only memories will remain of London, Venice will be flooded by the Adriatic Sea. Thousands of years from now, in this scenario, the Netherlands will be under water for many years, most of Denmark will also disappear. The overflowing waters of the Mediterranean will join the Black and Caspian seas.

Asia

The land now inhabited by 600 million Chinese will be flooded, as will Bangladesh of 160 million and most of India's coastal regions. The flooding of the Mekong Delta will cause the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia to become an island.

Australia

The now mostly desert continent will have an inland sea, but most of the narrow coastal strip will be flooded, and it is in this area that four out of five Australians now live.

Antarctic

The East Antarctic ice sheet is so large that it contains four-fifths of all the ice on the planet. It has survived earlier periods of warming and may appear unsinkable. It seems to have condensed a little lately - due to global warming. The warm atmosphere contains more water vapor, which falls as snow in East Antarctica. But even this giant is unlikely to survive the return to the climate of the Eocene.

Like the Greenland ice sheet, the West Antarctic ice sheet was much smaller during previous warm periods. It is vulnerable because most of it is on solid rock below sea level. The warming ocean melts the ice sheet from below, causing it to collapse. Since 1992, an average of 65 million tons of ice per year has been lost.