In
the past century, the Earth’s temperature has risen around 0.5 °C per year, which has
translated to about a 2.6 inch rise in global sea levels between 1993 and 2014 due to melting
ice caps. At this rate, experts believe it will take five thousand years to melt all five million
cubic miles of ice on Earth. The precious coastlines and landscape we take for granted will
soon be at the demise by our own hands. Thus, the effort in slowing down rising sea levels is
extremely important.
融冰之後
By Twinkle Poon
潘晴
What Would
Happen if All
of Earth’s
Ice
Melted?
Much of Earth’s land mass is comprised of ice
caps in the Arctic and Antarctica. The latter alone
consists of an average ice thickness of 2133 m.
If all of Earth’s ice caps defrosted, the total rise
in sea level will likely reach 70 m [1]. This means
that entire cities will be submerged. In addition,
continents and shorelines will be changed. New
York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Jakarta and Hong Kong are
all coastal cities that will be wiped out. In fact, a
mere rise of 10 m in current sea levels will displace
more than 600 million people (nearly 10% of the
world’s population). The entire state of Florida will
be drowned, as well as many areas in Asia and a
new inland sea will be created in Australia. Half of
the population in the world who live near coasts
will be homeless.
I n add i t i on to humans , the hab i tat s of
polar bears, seals, walruses and penguins will
undoubtedly disappear as these organisms rely
on ice caps to survive. According to the United
Nations Global Biodiversity Outlook, the loss of ice
in the Arctic threatens biodiversity across an entire
biome and most species will be unable to adapt
to a habitat without ice caps.
T h a t be i n g s a i d , t h e t empe r a t u r e i n
Antarctica rarely ever fluctuates above freezing
point, which protects the ice caps
f r om me l t i n g . A t p r e s e n t ,
what i s mos t conce r n i ng to
rising sea levels is actually the
Arct ic, where ice f loat s atop
the Ocean and i s mo re p rone
to melt i ng. I n addit ion, melt i ng
ice caps i n Green land cont r ibute to r i s i ng
sea levels significantly as it is geographically
