7. Massive Coastal Cities Will Disappear

Antarctica and Greenland hold a lot of ice. If they were to melt, it would have serious consequences for life on Earth. According to National Geographic, if sea levels were to stop rising, many coastal cities like New York, New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Cairo, London, Venice, Shanghai, and Bangladesh would be completely submerged. Other large areas of land would also be severely affected.

This would be a major disaster for the people and ecosystems that depend on these areas. Millions of people would be displaced from their ancestral homelands and longtime communities. In turn, many would suffer secondary health, financial, and geopolitical challenges related to moving away from their land.

If all the ice on Earth were to melt, approximately four-fifths of Australians live in areas today that would quickly be underwater. This would also affect an area in China currently home to around 600 million people. Denmark and the Netherlands would be almost completely submerged. Plus, much of the U.S.’s East Coast, including Florida and the Mississippi Delta, would disappear. Most of Paraguay and a large part of Central America go under.

Some major cities, including San Francisco and Phnom Penh, would become islands. While Africa might experience less land loss, the resulting rise in temperatures would make much of the continent inhospitable. Scientists estimate that about 40% of the world’s population lives in areas that would be affected by this scenario. Clearly, a massive sea level rise would be a disaster for humanity.^[4]

Related Images: