Name: What If All The Ice Melted Overnight
Uploaded: 2021-03-08T18:25:11.000Z
Duration: 5 min 13 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Ninety-nine percent of all freshwater ice on Earth

is sitting on top of Greenland and Antarctica,

and each year, a little more of it melts into the ocean.

Normally, it would take hundreds to thousands of years

that caused a massive global melt overnight?

Coastal cities like New York, Shanghai, and London

would drown in the apocalyptic mass flood,

forcing up to 40% of the world's population

something equally sinister is happening below.

All that rising salt water will infiltrate

forcing its way into nearby freshwater aquifers.

You know, the ones that supply our drinking water,

irrigation systems, and power-plant cooling systems?

On top of that, the ice on Greenland and Antarctica

is made of fresh water, so when it melts,

that's about 69% of the world's freshwater supply

and relies on dense, salty water from the Arctic

But a flood of fresh water would dilute the current

and could weaken or even stop it altogether.

temperatures in northern Europe would plummet,

that's not part of Greenland or Antarctica thaws.

Some of that 1% is sitting in glaciers farther inland.

toxic chemicals like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane,

Scientists discovered that glaciers like this

But as they thaw, those glaciers release the chemicals

into rivers, lakes, and groundwater reserves,

The rest of that 1% is hanging out underground,

with thawing permafrost would be mercury poisoning.

That's right: There are an estimated 15 million gallons

of mercury stored up in the Arctic permafrost.

That's almost equal to the amount of mercury

On top of that, the organic matter in permafrost

two of the most potent greenhouse gases out there,

the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,

and potentially cause global temperatures to rise

by 3.5 degrees Celsius compared to today.

but say goodbye to that mini European ice age,

and even rivers and lakes around the world.

They'd evaporate from the higher temperatures

and cause mass droughts and desert-like climates.

And all that extra water vapor in the atmosphere

So all of that newly established coastline on the eastern US

would be one of the last places you'd want to live.

Instead, there would be mass migrations to Canada, Alaska,

the Arctic, and even what's left of the Antarctic.

And you're right, this is probably never going to happen.

to cover the entire continent of North America

So the next time you hear about record-breaking heat

at least you know that it could be worse.

But scientists estimate that if we don't take action

and global temperatures increase by just 1 degree Celsius,

the effects of climate change we already see today