The future may have to consider living under water.
Findings of a new study published on the journal, Science Advances reveal that the burning of the world's fossil fuels is enough to thaw the entire Antarctic ice sheet -- thus, increasing global sea levels by more than 50 metres (160 feet), as reported by Reuters.
"Burning the currently attainable fossil fuel resources is sufficient to eliminate the (Antarctic) ice sheet," the scientists write, as cited by Reuters.
Titled, "Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet," authors of study report, as per Reuters that the worst case of the climate change could wipe out cities such as New York and Shanghai. With smaller ice sheet Greenland also predicted to be eliminated due to melting, it could also potentially change the world map bringing much of the Netherlands, Bangladesh or Florida under water.
The authors inform that Antarctica, in itself, contains ice equivalent to 58 metres of sea level rise. They warn that our current emissions from oil, coal and natural gas are enough to make the West Antarctic ice sheet unstable if continued for 60-80 years.
"What we are doing right now might change the face of the Earth for millennia to come," remarks lead author Ricarda Winkelmann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany as told by Reuters.
Winkelmann and team's study estimates that "curbs on emissions to limit warming to 2C could restrict long-term sea level rise to a few metres." Since 1900, seas were reported to have risen by about 20 cm (8 inches).
The New York Times' Andrew Revkin says that findings of the study match with the 2014 paper on the "collapse" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Moreover, the scientists noted in interviews that "such long-term risks raise profound moral questions for people of today."
"What right do we have to do things that, even if they don't affect us, are going to be someone else's problem a thousand years from now?" asked ice sheet expert Ian Joughin of the University of Washington. "Is it fair to do that so we can go on burning fuel as fast as we can?" he added as per The New York Times.
"If we don't stop dumping our waste carbon dioxide into the sky, land that is now home to more than a billion people will one day be under water," Ken Caldeira, a co-author at the U.S. Carnegie Institution, said in a statement as reported by Reuters.