Ice plays a fundamental role in our lives. And not just in aspects such as food, drinks, refrigeration, health and other applications. It is also important to maintain the balance of the planet. Climate change is one of the problems most present in the world today. Although, thanks to the strong campaigns carried out at the beginning of this century, it has been possible to somewhat reduce the initial panic created.
However, despite the fact that the culture and values of the people are gradually beginning to vary, there is an evident and uncontrollable risk that this change might follow its course. If this were the case, what would happen if all the ice of the glaciers and mountains should melt as a consequence of the climate change? Well, according to a report prepared by the Business Insider, many major cities could be submerged under the water.
And some of the names of these cities are more than recognisable: Tokyo, New York, Barcelona, London, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, San Francisco or Lima. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sea levels will increase by almost one meter by the end of the XXI century, placing many in a situation of risk.
There are more than 20 million cubic kilometres of ice on the Earth, which, according to the scientists, should melt over a period of 5,000 years. However, if we continue to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we shall probably find ourselves with a planet without ice in a short period of time. This could mean an average increase of the global temperature from 14ºC to 27ºC.
Based on what we now know, it would not be impossible to discard a 0.1 metre increase of the sea level over the next 100 years. Were all the ice caps in the World to melt, the sea level would increase by approximately 60-75 metres.
The Earth currently has permanent and floating ice in the Antarctic, the Arctic Ocean and Greenland, as well as much smaller permanent glaciers in different mountainous regions throughout the World. Geological evidence clearly indicates that, in the past, the polar caps had a greater extension and, on the other hand, that other ice caps were practically inexistent.
But, what would be the possible solution, should we reach this extreme? Well, this is strange. Our planet currently has 148 million square kilometres, 16 million square kilometres of which are covered by glaciers. A 66-metre increase of the sea level would flood around 13 million square kilometres of ground situated outside the Antarctica. Without polar ice, the Antarctica and Greenland would be free of ice and inhabitable, although almost half of the former would be under water. Therefore, the land free of ice could be around 128 million square kilometres, compared to the 132 million that presently exist.
This means that, although cities would be destroyed, the costal areas reclaimed from the sea would be mainly compensated by areas now inhabitable in Greenland and Antarctica. We are, of course, talking about thousands of years to reach this extreme. We must, once more, insist that this climate change would take thousands of years during which it would be necessary to readapt the planet’s population. It is more difficult to explain what would happen to the fauna and flora, but we shall leave that chapter for another day.