Chaos overtakes the streets,
and news spreads like wildfire.
Sea levels have suddenly risen
500 m (1,640 ft)
and giant waves are headed your way.
There’s no shortage of data
flooding the internet,
regarding rising sea levels.
Global warming has been progressively
melting our ice sheets and glaciers.
Over the past 100 years,
sea levels have increased by
about 24 cm (9.5 in).
But for all of the oceans
to rise 500 m (1,640 ft),
you'd need a lot more ice than
our planet has to offer.
Which leads to another big question.
Just how much ice would it take to flood Earth?
Let's be clear.
Earth does have a lot of ice,
but even if all of it suddenly melted overnight,
it would only cause a rise of about 70 m (230 ft).
Now, this would send all coastal cities underwater,
forcing over three billion people to leave their homes
and head for higher ground.
But that would be just a soggy walk in the park
compared to the disastrous aftermath
if our planet had seven times more ice,
and all of it suddenly melted.
Now you'd be looking at a towering
half-kilometer rise in sea levels,
and devastating
is anything but an understatement.
Would it be enough to submerge all of the land on Earth?
Well, luckily, no.
The average elevation of land above sea level
is about 840 m (2,756 ft).
So there would still be some ground left for you to move to.
I mean, that is, unless you wanted to move to Australia.
That continent would now be almost
200 m (656 ft) underwater.
Europe could face a similar fate,
with many of its countries sitting way below the 500 meter (1,640 ft) mark.
Places like Denmark and the Netherlands
would be completely submerged,
while Spain and France might keep their highest peaks above the water.
The U.S. and Canada wouldn't be ideal places for survival either.
Most of North America
would now be the ocean floor.
Where could you find safety among the chaos?
Well, try Africa.
This continent usually sits at about
600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level.
So some big patches of it would stand a chance to remain dry.
If you want an even better chance at survival,
you'd go to Chile or Afghanistan.
These countries have some of highest elevations on the planet
so they'd likely suffer the least.
But, your absolute best bet
at a better post-apocalyptic life?
Well, look to China.
Yeah, not only does China have higher elevations,
it would also become the largest and most powerful nation on Earth.
But you might be short on time to get there.
Billions of people would perish
as coastal floods swallow entire cities and countries.
Even if the few survivors
somehow managed to reach higher ground,
the disaster wouldn't end there.
Most farmland across the globe would be destroyed.
It would either be submerged
or contaminated by saltwater,
making it impossible to grow food.
The remaining land would belong to mountain peaks,
where the soil would likely be infertile.
There wouldn't be too many trees
for you to build a house or start a fire.
And you would need four walls to protect you from bad weather,
since it would all be out of whack.
That's because this newly diluted ocean water
would cause some ocean currents to stop.
By just taking the Gulf Stream out of the global climate equation,
temperatures would plummet
and maybe even trigger a mini ice age.
You'd barely find any food to eat.
Almost all the land animals would drown.
And fish?
Well, marine life wouldn't be so lucky either.
They're used to living in a higher salt concentration.
So when the glaciers melt
and dilute the saltwater with fresh water,
all the fish would bloat and die.
It's all scary stuff.
But what about humans?
Well, our own water reservoirs would mostly be wiped out.
That's because the ocean water would
infiltrate groundwater reserves
and pollute nearby fresh water,
turning drinking water undrinkable.
Put on your thinking cap
because you'd have to find some clever ways to recycle water to drink.
And with that, the big blue sphere we call home
would truly become almost exclusively blue
and barely our home at all.
So maybe you shouldn't play with ice.
Or better yet,
you could make sure none of this ever happens
by trying to refreeze the Arctic.
Yeah, but that's a story for another WHAT IF.