Study: Burning All Fossil Fuels Would Melt Antarctica Ice Sheet

Study Predicts Antarctica Ice Melt if All Fossil Fuels Are Burned

A new report concludes burning all of the world’s coal, oil and natural gas deposits would cause the entire ice sheet covering Antarctica to melt. Scientists found half the melting could happen in as few as 1,000 years. Warming oceans and the melting of the rest of the world’s land ice would cause the sea to rise a total of more than 200 feet. That’s enough to consume all of Florida and the entire U.S. East Coast and to drown Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Washington, New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. Researcher Ricarda Winkelmann told The New York Times, "To be blunt: If we burn it all, we melt it all."