Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/14/2007 - 08:23
Forums
Antarctic Ice Sheet Studies

what parts of the world would critically be affected by the melting caps in Antarctica?

Mon, 12/17/2007 - 16:54

Brandon Gillette

I don't know the exact math, and you'd probably get conflicting numbers from a variety of sources, but you're look at a significant rise in sea level if even just parts of Antarctica were to break up or melt.  The first places to go would obviously be those closest to sea level.  There are something like 130 million people in the world that live within 5 meters of sea level!  130 million out of 6 billion doesn't sound like many, but look at the nearly 300,000 from the tsunami in Sumatra a few years back.  That was a major catastrophe, no matter how you look at it! ~Gillette