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What the World Would Look Like If All the Ice Melted

nationalgeographic.com

20 points by apurvadave 9 years ago · 2 comments

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IsaacL 9 years ago

"There are more than five million cubic miles of ice on Earth, and some scientists say it would take more than 5,000 years to melt it all."

And it's unlikely we'd keep burning fossil fuels all that time.

More context from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise :

"Sea level rise has been estimated to be on average between +2.6 millimetres (0.10 in) and 2.9 millimetres (0.11 in) per year ± 0.4 millimetres (0.016 in) since 1993[3] and has accelerated in recent years.[4] For the period between 1870 and 2004, global average sea levels are estimated to have risen a total of 195 millimetres (7.7 in), and 1.7 millimetres (0.067 in) ± 0.3 millimetres (0.012 in) per year, with a significant acceleration of sea-level rise of 0.013 millimetres (0.00051 in) ± 0.006 millimetres (0.00024 in) per year."

If sea level rise continues at its current rate of 3mm/year, we'd expect to see 30cm (1 foot) of sea level rise by 2100. If the rate doubles to 6mm/year (as some expect), expected rise will be 60cm (2 feet). That's unpleasant but not an existential risk to humanity.

The maps in the article look dramatic, but they're predictions for the year 7000AD. People can move and adapt in that timeframe.

bradknowles 9 years ago

Original post is from 2013.

It's a good article, but it is a few years old.

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