What will happen if all of the ice on planet earth melted due to global warming? The before and after pictures below show riven and gashed continental masses. Cities such as Shanghai and Miami will no longer exist.

What happens if all the ice in the world melts?

Scientists monitoring sea ice in the Antarctic at the Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado revealed in February 2022 that Antarctic sea ice cover has reached a record low of 750,000 square miles, significantly below the 815,000 square mile record set in March 2017.

N. Raphael, a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Antarctic sea ice said the downshift was unprecedented and warmer sea temperatures among other factors might have played a part.

The Arctic ice satellite pictures taken in 2000 and 2022 paint a grim picture.

The Arctic is a different story entirely. While Antarctic sea ice extents are highly variable from year to year and has increase slightly since 1970 when satellite observations began, the Arctic has been losing its sea ice with the region warming about three times as fast as other regions resulting in sea ice melting at the rate of about 10% per decade.

The fluxes in the overall sea ice cover is unpredictable to say the least. While it grew slightly since 1970, the rate of increase accelerated from 2000 onwards to a record high in 2014 before dropping rapidly to a record low in 2017, rebounding back to average levels in 2020 and the dropping back to even greater lows in 2022. The changes now seem to be happening quickly. This is ominous. Are these the symptoms that long term trends might be reversing? Scientists are still not aware but they go directly to the problem of global environmental instability where the ice dance as it were is a prime indicator that when it comes to climate, the environment and the continuance of life on earth, we are treading on dangerously thin ice.