So okay, the premise of all the world's ice melting down and flooding certain heavily populated coastal cities isn't exactly something that's going to affect you or your children, or even your children's children's children. But as the Synthesis Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) taught us late last year, the effects of climate change are irreversible, and until we band together and do something to mitigate those effects, sea levels are going to continue to rise until there's no more ice to melt.
According to the report, sea levels have been increasing at a greater rate with the passing of every year, and they're predicted to rise by at least another metre by the end of the century. Once all the sea ice has melted, sea levels will have likely risen more than 66 metres (216 feet).
And you know what? Humans love living on the coast. A whole lot of us are living in huge, coastal cities right now, and as the Business Insider simulation above shows, those cities aren't going to be around forever if things keep going the way they are.
It's both sobering and fascinating to watch. And check out National Geographic's interactive map to see the comparisons between today's shorelines and tomorrow's. I guess hopefully we'll have all moved to Mars by then?