Climate Change Threatens Existence of Coastal Cities as Land Ice Melts
A recent visualization by Business Insider Science depicts what Earth’s coastlines would look like if all land ice, including massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, were to melt. The consequences are catastrophic, with coastal cities around the world disappearing underwater.
The two largest ice sheets on Earth, covering over 6 million square miles, store a significant portion of fresh water. If melted, they would raise global sea levels by about 200 feet, altering coastlines and threatening billions of people living near the coast.
Rising global temperatures due to increasing carbon emissions accelerate the melting of ice at an unprecedented rate. The warming planet causes the ice to melt faster than ever before, threatening to push the ice sheets beyond a tipping point from which they may not recover.
Cities worldwide would face devastating consequences, including:
– Brussels and Venice being completely submerged
– Dakar and Accra facing flooding in Africa
– Major Middle Eastern cities like Jeddah experiencing flooding
– Mumbai, Beijing, and Tokyo being forced to relocate inland due to rising water levels
– South America’s Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires at risk
– North America’s Houston, San Francisco, and New York City disappearing underwater
The link between melting land ice and climate change is clear. Human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels for energy, release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing Earth’s climate to warm at an accelerating rate. This warming impacts polar ice caps, causing them to melt faster.
If current emissions trends continue, the ice sheets could reach a tipping point where melting becomes irreversible, resulting in catastrophic changes to global ecosystems and human societies. Reducing emissions and addressing the root causes of climate change is critical to prevent such a future from becoming reality.
Source: https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/04/terrifying-maps-earth-if-land-ice-melts